Survey’s results are damning for president

More results from the Sunday Times survey on voter trends conducted by marketing research company Ipsos

THERE is an almost uniform perception across race and party affiliation that President Jacob Zuma improperly benefited from security upgrades to his Nkandla residence.

In an Ipsos survey, 73% of respondents agreed with the statement that “the amount spent is excessive and the money has been misused”.

A mere 18% of registered voters thought the upgrades were justified.

A total of 68% of ANC voters agreed with the statement.

More worryingly for the ANC, the poll was conducted between February 20 and March 11, before public protector Thuli Madonsela had found the president had indeed “benefited unduly” from the upgrades. That finding will no doubt solidify this view in the party.

As part of a fully representative survey of 2 222 registered voters, respondents were asked which of the following two statements they agreed with more: “Some people say Jacob Zuma deserves expensive security at his private home because he is the president and must be protected. Other people say the amount spent is excessive and the money has been misused.”

Across the four race groups, the results are damning for Zuma. Seventy percent of black voters, 84% of white voters, 67% of Indian voters and 78% of coloured voters agreed “the amount spent is excessive and the money has been misused”.

Only 22%, 3%, 15% and 12% of voters in each respective group thought the president was en- titled to “expensive security”.

The results by party affiliation were no better for the president, with 68% of ANC supporters, 82% of Democratic Alliance supporters and 80% of Economic Freedom Fighters supporters agreeing the money was misused.

Zuma has been implicated in every scandal during his term

By comparison, only 24%, 8% and 14% of voters for each of the respective parties agreed the upgrades were justified.

The result represents something of a crisis for the ruling party, which has tried to discredit the public protector through its Youth League. It called for Madonsela to resign, although it was later called to account for that statement by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.

This week, former minister Pallo Jordan wrote in Business Day that “Zuma has been implicated in every scandal that has arisen during his term of office, making it impossible to approach his office in search of a solution”.

Opposition parties have used the opportunity to campaign on Nkandla. The DA has released a TV advert on the protector’s findings, and its parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko, has submitted a motion of no confidence in the president in parliament.

AS part of the representative Ipsos survey of 2 222 registered voters, respondents were asked with which of these two opinions they most agreed: “Some people say we should stop using apartheid as an excuse to explain service delivery problems today, other people say the legacy of apartheid is still responsible for current obstacles to service.”

A total of 26% agreed that apartheid was a valid excuse for service delivery failure.

But the overwhelming majority, 62%, said it was no longer justified to use apartheid as an excuse for current shortcomings in the delivery of basic services, and 12% did not know or declined to answer.

By race, these percentages of voters agreed that apartheid is no excuse for poor service delivery: 60% black, 69% white, 61% Indian and 73% coloured.

In all, 59% of ANC voters felt apartheid was no longer a legitimate excuse and only 31% said it was still a justifiable explanation.

Among Democratic Alliances voters, 74% felt using the reason was not justified, compared with 12% who thought it was legitimate.

Sixty-four percent of Economic Freedom Fighters voters thought it an illegitimate excuse, compared with 31% who thought it was still the primary reason for poor service delivery.

According to Ipsos, these are the three biggest parties with regards to electoral support, with roughly 83% of the vote between them.

Public debate on this issue has been polarised for some time, most recently when President Jacob Zuma attributed the 2012 failure by the Limpopo provincial government to deliver school textbooks on time to apartheid and its architect, Hendrik Verwoerd.

He said in July 2012: “We are not dealing with a problem of today; we are solving a problem of centuries [ago].”

‘We are not dealing with a problem of today; we are solving a problem of centuries [ago]’

— Jacob Zuma

His comment was widely criticised and the president was rebuffed in April 2013 by Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, who said: “We can no longer say it is apartheid’s fault … There is no longer a Botha regime look-

‘There is no longer a Botha regime looking over our shoulder. We are responsible ourselves’

— Trevor Manuel

ing over our shoulder. We are responsible ourselves.”

The results of the Ipsos survey suggest that most South Africans side with Manuel on this issue.

And, according to the survey, that position is the majority view across all registered voters of all race groups.

Even if one breaks down the response by income brackets, the perceptions of this issue do not change.

Sixty percent of respondents who earn R1 200 a month or less agreed that the use of apartheid to explain poor service delivery was unjustified.

At the other end of the spectrum, 67% of respondents earning R12 000 or more a month shared a similar view.

This finding was supplemented by another key finding. Respondents were asked: “Some people say you should support the ANC even if it has not delivered a better life because it led the struggle for freedom, others say it should only be supported if it delivers on its promises. Which one of these opinions is closer to your view?”

Among ANC supporters, 24% believed the party should be supported only if it delivered on its promises, and 74% believed it should be supported regardless.

This seems to suggest that even though ANC voters increasingly believe the party cannot invoke apartheid to explain away poor performance, its brand is strong enough to withstand poor service delivery.

That strong faith in the ANC was mirrored in a series of questions about trust.

Respondents were asked how they felt about the parties they supported on a scale from “completely trust”, “trust to some extent”, “neither trust nor distrust”, “distrust to some extent” to “completely distrust”.

Eighty-three percent of ANC supporters completely trust their party or trust it to some extent.