The Ledger SA
Find your ward
Menu

All eight metros

Refuse and services

Is refuse collected? Who has basic services?

62.2%

of households in Mangaung had their refuse removed at least once a week in 2025, the lowest of the eight metros.

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025 · Data as of General Household Survey 2025 · Last updated

An asterisk marks a figure our automated checks found inconsistent with another official figure. It is shown as reported, explained in a footnote and left out of rankings.

Basic services, 2025

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025 · Data as of General Household Survey 2025

The newest official figures for each metro: Stats SA’s General Household Survey 2025, a sample survey. Census 2022 is shown beside each as the baseline.

Refuse removed at least once a week · GHS 2025

89.4%

Lowest: Mangaung.

  1. Ekurhuleni89.4%Census 2022 baseline: 88.6%
  2. Cape Town88.8%Census 2022 baseline: 90.2%
  3. Nelson Mandela Bay82.2%Census 2022 baseline: 88.8%
  4. Johannesburg79.3%Census 2022 baseline: 90.5%
  5. eThekwini78.1%Census 2022 baseline: 80.7%
  6. Tshwane76.9%Census 2022 baseline: 81.0%
  7. Buffalo City69.2%Census 2022 baseline: 71.3%
  8. Mangaung62.2%Census 2022 baseline: 59.1%

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025, Table 3.7: MFMA Circular No. 88 metro indicator data elements. Households whose refuse is removed at least once a week, as a share of all households. Grey text: Census 2022 baseline (refuse removed weekly).

Piped water inside the home · GHS 2025

83.2%

Lowest: Mangaung.

  1. Nelson Mandela Bay83.2%Census 2022 baseline: 82.3%
  2. Cape Town79.2%Census 2022 baseline: 85.4%
  3. Tshwane63.4%Census 2022 baseline: 71.3%
  4. Buffalo City59.4%Census 2022 baseline: 65.7%
  5. eThekwini58.9%Census 2022 baseline: 69.8%
  6. Ekurhuleni57.1%Census 2022 baseline: 73.8%
  7. Mangaung38.5%Census 2022 baseline: 47.3%
  8. Johannesburg53.8%*1not ranked · Census 2022 baseline: 77.1%

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025, Table 3.7: MFMA Circular No. 88 metro indicator data elements. Households with piped water inside the dwelling, as a share of all households. Grey text: Census 2022 baseline (piped water inside the home).

  • *1 As reported to Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025. This figure is inconsistent with Census 2022, which found 77.1% (more than 25% away) and may be a reporting error.
A flush toilet · GHS 2025

95.6%

Lowest: Mangaung.

  1. Cape Town95.6%Census 2022 baseline: 93.4%
  2. Nelson Mandela Bay95.0%Census 2022 baseline: 93.5%
  3. Johannesburg90.2%Census 2022 baseline: 93.0%
  4. Ekurhuleni88.5%Census 2022 baseline: 91.2%
  5. Tshwane82.4%Census 2022 baseline: 81.5%
  6. eThekwini79.2%Census 2022 baseline: 80.4%
  7. Buffalo City76.6%Census 2022 baseline: 80.7%
  8. Mangaung72.1%Census 2022 baseline: 71.0%

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025, Table 3.7: MFMA Circular No. 88 metro indicator data elements. Households with a flush toilet (sewer or septic tank), as a share of all households. Grey text: Census 2022 baseline (flush toilet).

Access to electricity · GHS 2025

97.8%

Lowest: Johannesburg.

  1. Cape Town97.8%Census 2022 baseline: 96.7%
  2. Mangaung96.6%Census 2022 baseline: 95.5%
  3. Nelson Mandela Bay94.4%Census 2022 baseline: 96.5%
  4. eThekwini90.4%Census 2022 baseline: 98.5%
  5. Ekurhuleni89.7%Census 2022 baseline: 93.1%
  6. Tshwane84.8%Census 2022 baseline: 91.8%
  7. Buffalo City82.1%Census 2022 baseline: 94.6%
  8. Johannesburg81.7%Census 2022 baseline: 94.1%

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025, Table 3.7: MFMA Circular No. 88 metro indicator data elements. Households with access to electricity, as a share of all households. Grey text: Census 2022 baseline (mains electricity for lighting).

A sample survey: metro figures carry sampling error. Census 2022 is the baseline. The survey asks households, like the census, but a sample of them; small differences between years or metros may not be real. Definitions differ slightly from the census (for example, access to electricity against mains electricity for lighting). Source: Stats SA, GHS 2025: selected development indicators, metros (P0318.3), Table 3.7.

Census 2022 baseline

Official: Statistics South Africa, Census 2022 and Census 2011 · Data as of Census 2022 (census night 2 to 3 February 2022) · Last updated

The census counts every household, so it is the baseline: the share with each service on Census night 2022, against Census 2011. Newer survey figures are above.

Census answers are what households told Stats SA, not the metro’s own service records. Stats SA has not published Census 2022 service figures by ward (only population, which each ward page shows), so these are metro totals. For problems in your area now, see the city’s water and power notices and community reports. Source: Stats SA Census 2022 portal, reused with acknowledgement.

Who the metros serve

Official: Stats SA, Non-financial census of municipalities 2023 · Data as of year ended 30 June 2023 · Next update expected 31 Mar 2027 (Stats SA release calendar: 2025)

What each metro reported to Stats SA about its own customers for the year ended 30 June 2023: how many it serves, how many get free basic services, and how many households it lists as indigent (too poor to pay).

Indigent households on the metro’s register · year to June 2023

924 690

Each metro sets its own income cut-off, so the counts are not strictly comparable.

  1. eThekwini924 690594 986 in 2022
  2. Cape Town186 520243 771 in 2022
  3. Tshwane123 594154 881 in 2022
  4. Ekurhuleni105 000137 173 in 2022
  5. Mangaung66 81250 217 in 2022
  6. Buffalo City52 43249 487 in 2022
  7. Nelson Mandela Bay45 61248 875 in 2022
  8. Johannesburg22 47048 068 in 2022

Official: Stats SA, Non-financial census of municipalities 2023, Table 12. Grey text: 2022 (as revised).

These are each metro’s own records, reported to Stats SA, not a survey. 2022 figures as revised in the 2023 edition. Source: Stats SA, Non-financial census of municipalities (P9115), unit data by province and district, Tables 3, 9 and 12.

Refuse not collected right now?

Community reports, unverified

No metro publishes missed refuse collections as data. Residents can report a missed collection in their ward; areas with several reports show on the community reports page and on ward pages. Reports are never used in our rankings or official figures.

Report a problem