Time, irreversible, and something that’s gone forever. But how much of it is wasted? Working from home has taken away the personal traffic burden, but just how long are people caught reading number plates on a daily basis in South Africa. The lost productivity in John Maynard’s analysis below is mind-blowing. He uses data from Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey and has taken out how long it takes people to get to work. He also breaks this comparison into the nine provinces. And what should concern everyone is just how much time is being lost to exhaust fumes, angry drivers and broken traffic lights. – Stuart Lowman
By John Maynard*
Gauteng
We start off by taking a look at the economic powerhouse of South Africa, Gauteng. The gauge graph below shows five different time groups, and the percentage of employees that falls into each of these categories.
Gauteng has the highest proportion of employees out of all the provinces for two categories namely 31-60min and 61-90min, with 35.4% and 8.6% of employees in these respective categories. Proof of overcrowded roads in Gauteng leading to endless traffic headaches for Gauteng commuters.
Western Cape
From the gauge below its clear that Capetonians and the rest of Western Cape spend a lot less time getting to work than the average Gautenger. With 26.1% of employees in Western Cape, getting to the office in less than 15minutes, while only 16% of Gautengers can say the same.
Perhaps public transport is better in Western Cape, or people do not stay as far away from their workplace as they do in Gauteng.
Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape has the highest proportion of employees traveling between 15-30min to the office, with more than 55% of employees stating it takes them between 15 and 30min to get to work. Eastern Cape also has the 2nd lowest proportion of employees that said it took them more than 90min to get to work.
Northern Cape
Northern Cape has the highest proportion of employees taking less than 15min to get to the office. Guess there is some benefit to staying and working in a sparsely populated area. No traffic. As we showed with our population density map, Northern Cape is very sparsely populated.
Free State
Free State has the 2nd highest (after Northern Cape) proportion of employees that said it takes them less than 15min to get to work. Guess lots of farm workers doesn’t have to travel far to get to their work place.
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal has the 2nd highest (after Eastern Cape) proportion of employees that said they take between 15 to 30min to get to work. They also have the 2nd highest (after Gauteng) proportion of employees that said it takes between 31 and 60min to get to the office.
North West
Roughly 43% of employees in North West said it took them between 15 and 30min to get to the office. Mine workers in hostels close to the mines?
Mpumalanga
In Mpumalanga 6.2% of the employees said it takes them between 61-90min to get to the office (this is the third highest in the country, after Gauteng and Western Cape). Mpumalanga sadly has the highest proportion of employees that said it took them more than 90min to get to the office. Perhaps pothole riddled roads caused by trucks carrying coal in the province is contributing towards this?
Limpopo
In Limpopo 42.9% of the employees said it takes them between 15-30min to get to the office (this is the third highest in the country, after Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal).
- John Maynard is the nom de plume of an independent economist who is obsessed with official statistics – and uses these facts to blast through misleading narrative and propaganda. For more of his unique insights click here.