President Zuma hits a new low

Support for President Jacob Zuma has dropped ‘even further’, a survey has found.

Support for President Jacob Zuma has dropped “even further” as negative sentiment towards South Africa’s future remains high, a Kantar TNS survey has found.

The results of the survey, released yesterday, also indicates that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is the most popular candidate to lead the African National Congress among metro residents.

Kantar TNS said its survey found that Zuma’s performance approval rating has dropped below 20% to a new low of 18% in August 2017.

“In this latest survey, we see that only 18% of South Africans living in metropolitan areas feel that Zuma is doing a good job as president of South Africa,” said the Kantar TNS communique attributed to its director, Amien Ahmed.

The survey said in contrast, 75% of people living in metropolitan areas disagreed that Zuma is doing a good job as president, an increase of 4% since March 2017. The shift in ratings continues to head downward primarily due to worsening perceptions among black and coloured respondents.

As many as 68% of black respondents do not agree that Zuma is doing a good job as president – rising from 64% in March this year and 59% in February last year. A higher percentage of coloured respondents disagree the president is doing a job, rising from 89% to 96% in March this year.

On perceptions of conditions in South Africa, the survey found that 71% of metro South Africans believe “things have gotten worse” in the past year, compared to 14% who think “things are much the same and 11% who feel things are getting better”.

Coloured respondents are the most pessimistic, with 88% believing things are worse. – ANA