3 February 2006

Two-thirds of South Africans believe that the country is going in the right direction, and 80% are satisfied with the job that President Thabo Mbeki is doing.

This was revealed by market research firm Markinor on the eve of Friday's opening of Parliament, as they released the results of their biannual Government Performance Barometer survey.

The survey was conducted through interviews with 3 500 randomly selected participants in November 2005. The results are representative of the views of South Africans 18 years and older across all provinces, genders, races, ages, working status and other demographic features.

Right direction
The survey asked the question "Do you think the country is going in the right or the wrong direction?". According to Markinor, this has proved to be a very good indicator of the mood of the electorate.

In November 2005, two-thirds of adult South Africans indicated that they thought the country was going in the right direction, with only two in every 10 indicating that they thought we were heading in the wrong direction.

The balance (8%) had no opinion, or could not quite decide which option to choose (7%). Almost equal proportions of males (64%) and females (66%) thought that the country was heading in the right direction.

Seven out of every 10 thought that the national government was doing a good job.

Local government
Ahead of the 2006 municipal elections, opinions about the effectiveness of local government were split. While 45% were positive, 48% of respondents had a negative perception of the local government tier.

"This poses a challenge for the government in view of the upcoming local election, but even more so for the new councils," Markinor said in statement.

"It is very interesting to see that it is younger people who have more appreciation for the work done by the local councils, as the political participation of younger people is always an issue.

"However, this opinion does not mean that they will go and vote on 1 March."

SouthAfrica.info reporter

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