This article assumes that community satisfaction with basic municipal services delivery is based on various factors. The article puts forward the hypothesis that affordability, that is, the ability to pay for basic municipal services, is a factor that determines satisfaction. Affordability is measured through employment, income and the Living Standard Measurement data, while satisfaction is a self-reported attitudinal variable by the communities themselves. The data for this article was obtained through an empirical survey of 200 households from eight Soweto townships; these townships fall within regions 6 and 10 of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Townships were divided into 'well-off' and 'worse-off' on the basis of their assessed ability to pay. Empirical findings confirm the hypothesis that people in well-off townships are significantly dissatisfied with municipal service delivery compared with those in