General household survey - Statistics South Africa

Statistics South Africa 3
P0318
At the time of the survey, 15,3% of South African households were living in ‘RDP’ or state-subsidised
dwellings. Female-headed households were appreciably more likely (11,6%) than their male counterparts
(8,2%) to receive a government housing subsidy.
Residents have, however, raised concern about the quality of subsidised houses and 15,5% said that the
walls were weak or very weak while 16,1% regarded the dwelling roof as weak or very weak. More than
35% of households in Western Cape reported problems with the quality of their walls and roofs.
Energy
The percentage of households connected to the mains electricity supply has increased relatively
consistently from 76,8% in 2002 to 82,7% in 2011. However, connectivity actually decreased in Western
Cape and Gauteng over this period. The use of wood and paraffin for cooking decreased consistently in
most provinces between 2002 and 2011. It is, however, notable that 47,2% households in Limpopo and
36% of households in Eastern Cape were still using wood and paraffin for cooking.
Water access and use
Although 89,5% of South African households had access to piped water in 2011, only 74,8% of Eastern
Cape households enjoyed such access. This situation does, however, represent a substantial improvement
over 2002 when only 56,8% of households in this province had access to piped water.
Nationally, 62,1% of households rated the quality of water related services they received as ‘good’.
Satisfaction has, however, been eroding steadily since 2005 when 76,3% of users rated the services as
good. Residents of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga have consistently been least satisfied
with the quality of water. In 2011, 27,3% of households in KwaZulu-Natal felt that their water smelled bad
compared to 25,6% of Eastern Cape households and only 3,2% of Northern Cape households. Eastern
Cape households were most likely to feel that their water was unsafe to drink (15,7%), not clear (15,1%)
and not tasting well (16,7%).
Sanitation and refuse removal
The percentage of households with no toilets or bucket toilets decreased from 12,6% in 2002 to 5,7% in
2011. Households in Eastern Cape (17,0%), Limpopo (7,9%) and Northern Cape (7,6%) were most likely to
lack access to toilet facilities or to still use bucket toilets.
The percentage of households that had access to the refuse disposal services of their municipality
increased slightly from 57,8% in 2002 to 62,1% in 2010 before dropping back to 61,0% in 2011. Access
and use of refuse removal services were the lowest in Limpopo where only 16,% of the population had their
refuse removed by the municipality at least once a week. Households in Western Cape (88,1%) and
Gauteng (87,9%) were most likely to have their refuse removed by the municipality at least once per week.
Telecommunications
Nationally, only 9,1% of households did not have access to either landlines or cellular phones in 2011.
Households in Northern Cape (19,3%) and Eastern Cape (16%) were least likely to have access to phone
services (cellular or landline). By comparison, 75,5% of households had access to at least one cellular
phone, while 14,7% of households had access to both a landline and a cellular phone. Only 0,8% of
households had only a landline. Households in historically rural provinces such as Mpumalanga (87,1%)
and Limpopo (88,3%) were most likely to rely on more accessible cellular telephones than landlines. By
contrast, a combination of both cellular phones and landlines in households were most prevalent in the
more affluent provinces, namely Western Cape (32,2%) and Gauteng (19,6%).
Almost a third of South African households (32,9%) had at least one member who used the Internet either
at home, work, the place of study, or Internet cafés. Households in Western Cape (52,1%) and Gauteng
(47,0%) were most likely to use the Internet while households in Limpopo (15,3%) were least likely to do
so.
Transport
Taxis were the most commonly used form of public/subsidised transport in South Africa as 49,3% of
households had at least one household member who used a minibus/sedan taxi or bakkie taxi during the
week preceding the survey. Nearly three-quarters (73,1%) of the individuals attending an educational
institution walked to get there compared to less than a fifth (18,8%) of those going to work. Only 7,4% of
individuals travelling to school travelled by private car while a further 7,2% used taxis. Private vehicles
General Household Survey, July 2011