Ipsos Poll: Performance of the President and the Deputy President

About half of adult South Africans believe that President Zuma, Deputy President Ramaphosa and the National Government are doing their jobs very or fairly well.

These findings are according to polls by market and opinion research company, Ipsos. The Ipsos Government Performance Barometer measures public perceptions about the performance of key leaders and institutions every six months. In September and October 2014 a total of 3,608 randomly chosen adult South Africans were interviewed in their homes and home languages (see Technical Detail for more information).

Looking at the image below, it is clear that the assessment of the performances of President Zuma and the National Government were on a steady decline since just after the 2009 general election.[1] "It is a worldwide phenomenon that the general mood in a democracy and the evaluation of leaders always show a bit of an upswing just after an election, as people tend to believe that things will change for the better. South Africa is no exception and at the end of the election year 2014, the performances of both President Zuma and the National Government were viewed more positively than previously by adult South Africans," says Mari Harris, Director of Public Affairs at Ipsos South Africa.

At the end of 2014 almost half (46%) of adult South Africans were of the opinion that the president was not doing his job well[2], while smaller proportions of 41% indicated that they did not think the deputy president was doing his job well and 42% that the National Government were not doing their jobs well. It is also important to keep in mind that about one in every ten (11%) indicated that they cannot (yet) make a judgement about the performance of the deputy president.[3]

 It is no surprise that the supporters of different political parties feel very differently about the performance of President Zuma. About seven in every 10 ANC supporters are evaluating his performance as very or fairly well, whereas the scores received from the supporters of opposition parties are much lower. However, less than a quarter of ANC supporters (23%) believe that the president is doing his job as president of the country VERY WELL:

Technical detail:

A total of 3,608 personal face-to-face interviews were conducted with randomly selected adult South Africans. The interviews were done in the homes and home languages of respondents. Trained quantitative fieldworkers from all population groups were responsible for the interviewing, which took place from 19 September to 24 October 2014. Interviews were done all over the country, from metropolitan areas to deep rural areas.

This methodology ensured that the results are representative of the views of the universe and that findings can be weighted and projected to the universe - i.e. South Africans 15 years and older. Interviews were conducted using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) and all results were collated and analysed in an aggregate format to protect the identity and confidentiality of respondents. All sample surveys are subject to a margin of error, determined by sample size, sampling methodology and response rate. The sample error for the sample as a whole at a 95% confidence level is a maximum of 1,67%.  

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Footnote:

[1] The question asked is: "Do you think ....... is doing his/her/their job very well, fairly well, not really well or not at all well?"

[2] "Not very well" and "Not at all well"

[3] This is the first time that Cyril Ramaphosa has been evaluated as Deputy President. A smaller proportions of 3% indicated that they do not have an opinion about the performance of the president and 5% felt the same way about the national government.

Statement issued by Mari Harris, Director Ipsos Public Affairs, February 12 2015

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