Most people who used services from a sample of five departments felt they received the help they needed, but were frustrated by time delays and rude staff, a new study has found.
The survey by the Public Service Commission (PSC) — released on Thursday — also shows that the departments fared poorly on providing redress to service delivery problems.
Two national and three provincial departments were polled. The survey was conducted with 5,473 users of the family courts run by the national department of justice, the deeds registration offices of the national department of rural development and land reform, and the pharmaceutical services, social grants and housing subsidies sections of provincial departments of health, social development and human settlements.
An average 80 percent of respondents were satisfied with the outcome of their dealings with those sectors of the public service, and 77.6 percent felt they were treated fairly.
But they only awarded the departments 56 percent for courtesy, 50 percent for accessibility and 23.6 percent for providing redress to delivery failures.
Family courts and subsidy applications offices respectively scored 9.6 and 16 percent in this last category.
“The PSC found that on average the service users of the participating departments were satisfied with the outcome of service delivery. This implies that they received the government services they required,” the organisation said.
“However, it was worrying that the receipt of such services was marred by challenges such as redress mechanisms, which was perceived to be poor, the time it took for them to receive such services, accessibility of such services, the provision of information on the services rendered, as well as the courtesy displayed by the public servants when providing services.” – SAPA