Recently, Stats S.A – the country’s custodian of statistical information - released the results of the 2022 Census. By all accounts, nothing in the details of the results was a surprise as many would have expected the total population figure of 62 Mil. Once again, Gauteng emerged with the highest population at 15,1 Mil and the Northern Cape recorded the lowest population, at 1,4 Mil. The Northern Cape recorded the lowest population density at a generous 3,6 people per square kilometer and on the extreme end is the Gauteng Province with an overwhelming population density of 831 people per square kilometer.
I would like to draw attention to the province of Gauteng, the heartbeat of South Africa’s economy, which accounts of 1,5% of South Africa’s land mass yet it houses 24% of South Africa’s population. This and the above are staggering statistics, must surely have an impact, especially when viewed against the public resources or services available and the consumption of those services. Services ranging from the provision of water for drinking and sanitation, the building and maintenance of roads and healthcare services infrastructure, among others.
Does the population pressure account for the apparent poor public service delivery in Gauteng? My view is that the answer is partly yes and partly no. Yes, in a sense that there will always be a limited amount of public expenditure budget to address what is a very large population occupying in a very small land mass. For instance, one would expect that wear-and-tear on public infrastructure in such a cramped Province would be happen at a faster rate than in all the other provinces. And it’s a no, to the extent that investment in new public services infrastructure – let alone the maintenance of existing infrastructure – has not been in line with the growth of Gauteng’s population due perhaps to inadequate budget allocation or poor planning or corruption or indeed all these three factors combined.
Our Politicians must show political will to create effective government !!!
