Cape Town businesses say City services are improving — now fix the delays

Cape Town – Businesses in Cape Town have expressed growing confidence in the City’s service delivery, with the latest Business Satisfaction Survey recording a sharp improvement in its overall Public Service Quality rating.

The 2025/26 Business Satisfaction Survey, conducted as part of the City’s Ease of Doing Business Index, gave Cape Town a Public Service Quality (PSQ) score of 92, up from 86 in the previous 2023/24 survey. The score places the City in the survey’s “good performance” category.

The survey, conducted between February and June 2026, drew responses from 369 businesses, generating 603 indicator-level responses. It assessed businesses’ experiences with nine municipal processes, including land-use rights, building-plan approvals, wayleaves, energy connections and business licences, with digitisation treated as a cross-cutting indicator.

Businesses gave positive feedback on the City’s E-services platform, particularly its registration, login and navigation functions. Business licences, informal trading permits, electricity and water connections, and wayleaves also recorded improvements in areas including complexity, affordability, additional costs and turnaround times.

Uncertainty for applicants

However, the survey found that land-use rights, building-plan approvals and public land transfers remain major pain points, largely because of complicated procedures, multiple approvals and lengthy processing times.

Processing delays emerged as the biggest concern for businesses, with the survey noting that delays can increase operating costs and create uncertainty for applicants.

Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth Alderman James Vos said the results showed that reforms were beginning to have a practical impact.

“The intention of this programme is simple: to further a culture of service, accountability, and speed within the City because in business, time is money,” Vos said.

Direct foreign investment

Vos acknowledged that more work was needed, saying: “We can’t shy away from where we need to improve.” He said the City would focus on simplifying high-impact development processes, improving coordination between departments and giving businesses greater visibility over their applications.

The findings come as Cape Town continues to position itself as an investment and business hub. Invest Cape Town says the city added 388,000 jobs over the past five years, while its economic data shows an estimated R87 billion in direct foreign investment between 2015 and 2024.

The latest survey therefore provides a mixed but largely positive picture: business confidence in municipal services is rising, but delays in key development processes remain a barrier that the City will have to address if it wants to make Cape Town easier and faster in which to do business.