Ipsos Survey_Performance rating of national government declines
According to the latest poll by opinion and market research company, Ipsos, just over half of adult South Africans (52%) indicated that, in their view, the national government was performing "well"[1]. Four provinces, namely the Western Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and the Free State outperformed the national government when their performances were evaluated.[2]
This is an important finding from the Ipsos "Pulse of the People" poll of 3,446 adult South Africans. Fieldwork was conducted between 26 October and 7 December 2012. In the poll, randomly selected respondents were asked how they evaluated the performance of various institutions and officials. The results are representative of the views of South Africans of voting age, i.e. 18 years and older.
Rating of the performance of the national government has dropped significantly since May 2012 when the previous evaluation was undertaken. "In May this stood at 61% which shows a marked decrease in public confidence that our government was doing a decent job in the latter part of the year" comments Mari Harris, public affairs director and political analyst at Ipsos.[3]
Performance of the provincial structures and premiers
In view of regular discussions and news reports of the efficiency of provincial structures as well as opinions expressed about the number of provinces in South Africa, a brief look at the evaluation of the performance of provinces - as based on the first-hand experience of the voters living in each province - is relevant. "In most cases, the performance evaluation of the provincial government is closely tied to the performance rating of the premier" states Harris.