Report on state of Garden Route towns

GEORGE NEWS - A follow-up opinion survey to the July 2023 'The State of the Garden Route Cities and Towns' survey, was conducted during February 2024 by Dr Dennis Farrell of Business Café.

It is important to note that this poll is not representative of the Garden Route community as it is not a random poll.

As with the initial survey, the public were invited to give their insights into the state and sustainability of cities/towns in the Garden Route.

The largest responses were from Knysna, George and Hessequa. In total there were 817 responses, which is below the responses received in July 2023, with the biggest difference being the low response rate received from Bitou residents.

The overview on the outcome of the follow-up survey will be released in three documents, this being the first which will focus on the current state compared with the July 2023 survey.

Participants indicated a decline in pensioners by 8% and an increase in full-time employed people by 4%.

There were minor shifts in the other categories with the unemployed increasing from 3% to 3,5%.

The "stress" on people can be related to the increase in the respondents' response to "basic needs" such as food, water, shelter, sleep and clothing as well as security of the environment, employment, stability, resources, health, and property.

Leadership

The negative perception and opinion of leadership as a collective, both political and municipal, has increased. To the question whether respondents have confidence in the leadership and management to provide sustainable services to the residents of their city/ town, the previous outcome indicted a 55,67% no to political and 50,88% no to municipal leadership.

The no response has increased to 73,05% for political leadership and to 67,8% for municipal leadership.

The vulnerability to decay in our cities and towns is grounded in a perceived lack of leadership and management within our political and administrative structures.

Voting

Confidence to vote for the same political party has declined. Respondents have indicated that for the 2024 National and Provincial election on 29 May, 52,24% will not vote for the same political party they previously voted for.

This is an increase in the no vote from 37,19 in July 2023. Regarding the 2026 municipal election, the no vote has increased from 35,99% to 50,72%.

We added a new question asking whether people will be voting in the 2024 election and a positive 87% of the respondents in both the Garden Route and Overberg indicating that they will be voting.

Non-responsiveness of officials

Non-responsiveness to citizenry is a clear indication that public participation and other communication with municipal officials is managed with impunity and as a tick-box exercise. Constructive active citizenry has grown over the past months with the various successes achieved by a number of different organisations addressing certain issues.

Apathy by councillors and municipal officials to act on requests from their constituents and/or citizens/residents has declined further.

The 2023 responses indicated councillors at 50,77% and municipal officials at 60,15%. The 2024 respondents indicated a level of apathy by councillors to be at 60,93% and municipal officials at 69,5%. It remains a concern that "public servants" increasingly remain apathetic towards residents whom they need to serve.

Loitering and homeless

In the Garden Route as a collective, 88,42% of the respondents indicated an increase in loitering and homeless people, 81,37% indicated an increase in criminal activity and 79,5% indicated an increase in dumping of refuse, general mess and lack of cleanliness.

Potholes and deterioration of road infrastructure was the 3rd highest ranked by 72,38 % [of respondents] in 2023 while 78,12% respondents indicated this decline in 2024.