Access to healthcare services is largely determined by socioeconomic factors, with economically well-off individuals obtaining healthcare services more efficiently than those who are disadvantaged. This paper aims to assess the effects of socioeconomic and other related factors on access to healthcare facilities in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were sourced from the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) quality of life survey (2020/2021). Multivariate logistic regression was applied. Results showed that 66.3% of the respondents reported that they had access to public healthcare facilities within their area. Furthermore, results showed that those who lived in informal houses were significantly (OR = 0.55, 95% CI [0.37–0.80], p < 0.01) less likely to report that they had access to public healthcare facilities in their area compared to those who lived in formal houses. More efforts need to be undertaken to ensure that all citizens have access to public healthcare facilities, especially among those who are disadvantaged, such as informal dwellers. In addition, future research should encompass locality in relation to the factors that affect access to public healthcare facilities, especially during pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to have geographically targeted interventions.

Access to healthcare is influenced by various socioeconomic factors such as income, population group, educational attainment and health insurance. This study used Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) to investigate spatial variations in the association between socioeconomic factors and access to public healthcare facilities in the City of Tshwane, South Africa based on data from the Gauteng City-Region Observatory Quality of Life Survey (2020/2021). Socioeconomic predictors included population group, income, health insurance status and health satisfaction. The GWR model revealed that all socioeconomic factors combined explained the variation in access to healthcare facilities (R²=0.77). Deviance residuals, ranging from -2.67 to 1.83, demonstrated a good model fit, indicating the robustness of the GWR model in predicting access to healthcare facilities. Black African, low-income and uninsured populations had each a relatively strong association with access to healthcare facilities (R²=0.65). Additionally, spatial patterns revealed that socioeconomic relationships with access to health care facilities are not homogeneous, with significance of the relationships varying with space. This study highlights the need for a spatially nuanced approach to improving healthcare facilities access and emphasizes the need for targeted policy interventions that address local socio-environmental conditions.

One of South Africa's most persistent socioeconomic challenges is youth unemployment with rates among young people consistently higher than the national average. This study examined the spatial variation of youth unemployment in Gauteng province using data from the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Quality of Life Survey 7 (2023/24). Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was used to show how the relationships between youth unemployment and significant socioeconomic factors vary across space, instead of assuming that these relationships are uniform across the province. Youth dissatisfaction with government job creation initiatives, educational attainment, perceived job difficulties in finding work, gender and living in informal dwellings are the main focus of the analysis. Significant spatial heterogeneity was noticed in the GWR results, with Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng and parts of City of Johannesburg showing stronger associations between youth unemployment and these factors. The determinants of youth unemployment are highly place-specific as indicated by the significant variation in local model performance across wards (local R ² ranging from 0.39 to 0.77). These findings demonstrate that highly variable local factors influence youth unemployment in Gauteng and that place-based, spatially focused policy interventions are required rather than uniform, province-wide solutions.