55 Figure 3.1: Customers’/Citizens Map
Source: Researcher, 2015
The above figure depicts the view that the customer or citizen remains the central person for whom services have to be delivered. Related to the study, the two theories imply that the customers/citizens have expectations to be served with quality and should have timely services delivered to them, and that their expectations have to be met by their service provider/s (Musaba et al, 2014: 535). The customers/citizens always have their own perceptions about the type of service they expect. The perceptions can either be negative or positive. They are deemed positive when customers/ citizens are satisfied. On the other hand, they are seen to be negative when the provider has failed to meet their expectations, such as providing them with water. As such, government provides services for its citizens as they are the recipients thereof, and they must be satisfied. Government derives its mandate when voted to power by its citizens. There is therefore an obligation to fulfil its mandate, meeting the needs and the expectations of the citizenry. In line with this assertion, citizens expect service quality which service institutions or government offer to meet their expectations; citizens having perceptions of the performance of the institutions/government providing the services. It therefore appears that citizens use their expectations to predict the type of service they should receive in transactions from their government. In the course of discharging its tasks and responsibilities, quality of service remains fundamental for government. Should citizens feel that government cares for them, they tend to give their full support to it, voting for it.
3.4 Application of Expectation-Perception And Core-Value Theories on Public
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this view by stating that public services are provided by the government voluntarily to its citizens on the basis of the commitment it makes during the electioneering period. Government makes promises to its people in terms of the services they should expect. In the course of this promise, citizens do not expect their government to “crowd out” private contributions (Hughes, 2012:
164). By “crowding out” is meant that government is not expected by the citizens to pay any private company to provide services on its behalf. It is argued that when the services are contracted out to private companies, accountability is lost in the process; citizens then raise questions as to why government must outsource public services (Hughes, 2012: 164). In the context of this statement, citizens always remain averse to any services being privatised. Citizens expect their government to deliver services without making them pay for their provision. Should the services be outsourced, citizens view this as contributing to the fixing of prices, forming of cartels, restricting access to basic services (Hughes, 2012: 147). All government institutions are deemed accountable to their citizens through the political system. On the other hand, an argument has been advanced that efficiency improves when the services are outsourced to private companies (Hughes, 2012: 147). This remains a subject for further research.
When government performs poorly fails to meet the demands of citizens, citizens normally resort to social actions such as protesting, or holding back their votes during elections (Houston et al, 2013: 134). Unmet expectations have the propensity to result in violent protests which sometimes results in loss of lives or destruction of infrastructure, citizens demanding services to be delivered. Privatising public services by government can therefore be viewed as an admission of failure to provide services to citizens, expressing weakness in the skills government has in- house (Hughes, 2012: 153). On the other hand, private companies report to their private owners/shareholders and they have no time to satisfy the needs of the customers if they are not making money. Government is not therefore expected to behave in like manner as private businesses. Citizens expect their government to provide them with services conscientiously, without charging them at all.
Framed within the above declaration, the engagement of private companies generally has the potential to allow private institutions to collude, maximising their profits (Hughes, 2012: 146).
Collusion encourages companies to dishonour the rules by which they have to abide, citizens in the long run not being provided with basic services. Citizens ultimately suffer despite their
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having an expectation of basic service delivery, as a result of the expectation-perception theory.
Phiri et al (2013: 103) argue that citizens tend to experience anger and disappointment when their government fails to deliver the expected basic services. This is particularly the case when government is the sole service provider, with citizens having no alternative option. People tend to think that they would have received better service delivery from another provider had they had an option. Within the context of eThekwini Municipality, eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit is the only water and sanitation service provider. It is therefore the only player, and a monopoly has been created (Nandan, 2010: 101). However, it could be stated that this is a justified and a legal monopoly which has been created through the Water Services Act of 1997 and the RSA Constitution of 1996. These two pieces of legislation assert that water-service provision lies with local government, which provides basic services. This is accentuated by Section 27 (1) of the Constitution which states that everyone has the right of access to sufficient water.
However, it can be debated that the state of monopoly which eThekwini Municipality enjoys as the water-service provider has created an environment in which it has no real competition other than the perceived and intangible competition. The perceived or real competition is used in this context to refer to issues such as unemployment, poverty, inability to pay for the services that have been provided by government, and disease. When a service provider has no real competition it may neglect important aspects such as service quality, meeting the expectations of the citizens, serving the citizens in a responsive, empathetic, and reliable manner that gives assurance to the citizens. Citizens expect optimum efficiency, effectiveness and politeness in the course of being served, expecting that their needs should not be neglected (Nandan, 2010: 103).
Houston et al (2013: 136) state that when the citizens approach government, it is with a hope that their expectations will be met. When the citizens’ expectations meet with failed service encounters, disgruntlement becomes the overriding sentiment. Disgruntled citizens communicate their unmet expectations to their government (Houston et al, 2013: 136). It is therefore important on the part of government to ensure that its service-delivery standards match the expectations held by citizens prior to visiting government offices.
Applied within the context of public service provision, the expectation-perception theory asserts that citizens will retain positive feelings should services such as water be provided within their expectation. Their satisfaction levels result in their revisiting the service station or centre that
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helped them. It is therefore correct to state that the citizens of eThekwini Municipality, particularly those living at Johanna/Boxwood Road Informal Settlement, would wish to be associated with their municipality should services such as water be delivered to their maximum satisfaction.
Equally, viewed within the context of the legal framework, it may be stated that citizen protection is not assured when services are outsourced to private providers. According to Saleh et al (2014: 141) the core-value theory asserts that citizens consider themselves important when government attaches the values or principles of responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance and tangibility in supplying their needs. These principles are key in satisfying the needs of the citizens. In line with this statement, the citizens of eThekwini Municipality expect water services to be delivered in a reliable and responsive manner. It remains important for government to deliver services effectively and efficiently for the citizens to ensure that they are satisfied.