In short 

• South Africa’s Batho Pele framework was introduced to place citizens at the centre of municipal service delivery after 1994. 

• Data from the HSRC South African Social Attitudes Survey show declining public confidence in municipal performance. 

• Perceptions worsened around consultation, communication, complaint handling, transparency and value for money. 

• Strengthening engagement, accountability and service standards is essential to rebuild public trust. 

After 1994, the South African government introduced the Batho Pele (“people first”) framework to guide public service delivery. Yet service delivery protests have remained a persistent feature across the country. A recent analysis of data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey 2007–2020 suggests that public confidence in “people-first” municipal performance had steadily declined, notably around consultation, communication, complaint handling, and value for money.

People waiting to access services outside the Department of Home Affairs in Johannesburg, Gauteng, October 2025. Photo by: Ihsaan Haffejee, GroundUp (CC BY-ND 4.0)  

“Here in the ward, we have no water, yet we are constantly told it is being fixed. Now in 2026, we have received nothing but excuses,” Thokozani Gumede, a resident of uMfolozi, told the Zululand Observer during a water supply protest in January 2026. Protesters used logs, burning tyres and municipal skips to block roads and threatened to escalate action if water services were not restored.  

Service delivery protests remain a common feature across South Africa, often triggered by long-running breakdowns in basic municipal services and a widespread sense that complaints go unanswered.  

 As part of post-1994 reform, the government introduced the Batho Pele (“people first”) framework to place citizens at the centre of public service delivery and define standards for consultation, transparency, redress, and value for money. 

Batho Pele principles 

 The framework rests on eight principles: 

• Consultation: involving citizens in decisions about municipal services (e.g., community meetings and surveys), so services respond to real needs 

• Service standards and quality: setting clear, measurable expectations for service quality and timelines 

• Access: ensuring that everyone can use services fairly, without discrimination or unnecessary barriers 

• Courtesy: treating residents with respect, dignity and empathy when providing services 

• Information: providing clear, accurate, timely information about services, procedures and rights in accessible ways 

• Openness and transparency: operating in ways the public can see and understand, including decisions, policies and spending 

• Redress: offering effective complaint channels and fixing problems when services fail 

• Value for money: using public resources efficiently and responsibly to deliver better outcomes 

Members of South Africa’s Democratic Alliance political party march against load shedding, electricity tariffs, and the ANC in Johannesburg, January 2023.  Photo: Chris Gilili, GroundUp (CC BY-ND 4.0) 

Recently, HSRC researchers partnered with the University of Pretoria to assess how South Africans rate municipal performance using the Batho Pele principles as a lens. The study used statistical analysis of data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) 2007–2020 to measure public perceptions across the eight principles and track how these views shifted over time. 

Consultation 

According to the report, public perceptions of consultation were weak and deteriorated between 2007 and 2020. In 2007, 19% of respondents reported they felt municipalities did not consult communities enough on basic services. By 2018, this proportion had increased to 34%. The researchers argued that citizens had become increasingly sceptical about the extent to which municipalities actively involved them in decision-making processes. 

Service standards and quality 

In 2007, 46% of participants believed that the government was meeting its service delivery commitments. By 2018, this figure had declined to 33%, indicating an erosion of confidence in municipalities’ ability to deliver high-quality services. 

Access to services 

Similarly, perceptions of progress towards equitable access to services weakened over time. In 2007, 44% of respondents believed the government was making strides towards providing equal access to services for all South Africans. This dropped to 31% in 2015, with a modest recovery to 34% in 2020. The authors suggested this reflected a growing sense of inequality in service provision. 

Courtesy 

The report argued that courtesy was consistently one of the weaker areas of municipal performance from the public’s perspective. In 2010, 39% of respondents agreed that their municipality treated people with respect. This percentage dropped to a low of 30% in 2016.  

Information, openness and transparency 

The study found widespread dissatisfaction with how municipalities communicate about their services and performance. On average, only 29% of South Africans agreed that municipalities provided accurate information about essential services. Perceptions of transparency were similarly low, with an average of 27% believing municipalities consistently reported on their service delivery performance. Agreement peaked at 31% in 2009 and dropped to 23% in 2016. 

Redress 

Municipal complaint handling was widely viewed as slow and ineffective. Across the period analysed, an average of 24% of respondents felt their municipality responded quickly to service complaints, and 27% believed municipalities were effective at resolving service delivery problems. 

Value for money 

Residents’ satisfaction with value for money was also consistently low. Across the years analysed, only 27% of respondents felt they received satisfactory value for money from municipal services, with the highest agreement in 2009 (35%) and the lowest during 2012–2013 (23%).  

What now? 

This study offered a citizen-centred way of tracking and comparing how municipalities were performing against the Batho Pele principles over time. It highlighted areas where public perceptions were consistently weakest. Researchers suggested municipalities strengthen meaningful community engagement and feedback channels, improve performance measurement and public reporting, and use practical benchmarking tools to improve basic service delivery. They also emphasised that reforms had to be applied in context-sensitive ways and recommended future work that combines survey trends with municipal case studies or audits to better explain what drives responsiveness (or the lack of it).  

Research contacts and acknowledgements 

This Review article is based on the study South African municipal performance through the lens of Batho Pele principles: A public perspective, and was summarised by HSRC science writer Jessie-Lee Smith, with inputs from Dr Yul Derek Davids. 

The study was conducted by Dr Yul Derek Davids, Dr Benjamin James Roberts, Dr Kombi Sausi and Diana Sanchez Betancourt from the HSRC’s Developmental, Capable and Ethical State Division; and Dr Tyanai Masiya, Dr Stellah Lubinga and Dr Mary Mangai from the University of Pretoria. 

The study used data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) 2007–2020. 

For more information about this work, please contact Dr Yul Derek Davids at ydavids@hsrc.ac.za.