Survey: Ramaphosa good for ANC

THE ANC under President Cyril Ramaphosa has made a dramatic recovery in terms of voter support before next year’s general elections.

According to market research and consulting firm Ipsos, the party’s support has rocketed to 60% since Ramaphosa took over from his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

This came as no surprise as another Ipsos poll found in May that almost two thirds (63%) of voters believed the country was going in the right direction under Ramaphosa.

In its latest Pulse of the People study, Ipsos said that out of 3000 randomly selected South Africans, 60% supported the ANC. The DA came second (13%) and the EFF (7%) third.

The survey also found that the ANC and the DA were neck and neck in the Western Cape, polling 26% and 28% respectively.

Mari Harris, the Ipsos director of public affairs, said it appeared South Africans were moving past the Zuma-era ANC. The Ipsos report around this time last year showed the ANC’s support at 45%.

“The Ramaphosa factor is big because suddenly there is a leader who people trust and can look up to. If you look at our results after Cyril’s 100 days there is a lot of trust expressed in the new president, and people are willing to give him a chance,” Harris said.

Antonia Squara, a research manager at Ipsos, said that when they conducted the same survey last year, people were concerned about the future.

“We saw the results were quite negative all round regarding all aspects of living in South Africa,” she said.

But things had changed as people were now generally happy.

“Ramaphoria has impacted on South Africans, and we are a lot more positive,” she said.

Last week, Ramaphosa was in the Middle East on an investment drive to raise $100 billion (R1.33trillion) in the next five years.

Political analyst Professor Somadoda Fikeni said the average person may have been impressed as Ramaphosa – unlike Zuma – was not limping from one crisis to the other around personal matters.

“They may have seen his (Ramaphosa’s) efforts to build social cohesion in a very difficult moment.

“They realise that he is not the cause of some of the negative things that are unfolding, and that he is making an effort,” Fikeni said.

But he added that the survey could not be used as a prediction of the outcome of next year’s elections.

“Parties like the ANC tend to be stronger towards the end of the (election) campaign, having experienced all sorts of problems, and are able to pick up in the last three months,” Fikeni said.

Interesting

Squara said the election in the Western Cape could be very interesting.

“The DA has been having internal issues. There has been a lot of negative press around them. It makes people quite uncertain, so there are various factors that we see in the ANC getting stronger.”

The survey was conducted while the DA was embroiled in infighting with City of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.

DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi said: “Everything we are doing is to make sure that we retain the Western Cape and become the majority party in Gauteng and the Northern Cape.”

ANC provincial spokesperson Yonela Diko said the survey results were in line with their own research.

“We brought in Rasool (former Western Cape premier, and current ANC election head Ebrahim Rasool) who has a history of winning and governance. Many people who used to be disillusioned within the ANC are part of election structures,” Diko said.