'Blaming apartheid is no longer a credible excuse'

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

As part of the representative Ipsos survey of 2222 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]."

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 looking 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 R1200 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 R12000 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.

Growing pessimism about future

Is South Africa moving in the right or the wrong direction? This key question is one of the best litmus tests for the national mood and people's pain threshold.

A total of 44% of respondents polled by Ipsos as part of a survey commissioned by the Sunday Times thought the country was moving in the wrong direction, compared with 40% who felt it was moving in the right one. The remaining 16% were neutral or did not know.

Other recent surveys, including those commissioned by the government and used in its August 2013 Development Indicators report, mirror this finding. The government's statistics, part of a survey conducted every year, demonstrate a steady decline in optimism, from 71% of people who felt the country was moving in the right direction in 2004 to just 42% in 2012.

The latest Ipsos findings would suggest this downward trend is continuing.

When the Ipsos numbers are broken down by party, a small majority of ANC- registered voters believe South Africa is moving in the right direction (53%) compared with 32% who think it is moving in the wrong direction.

Among Democratic Alliance voters, 67% believe the country is moving in the wrong direction, as do 60% of Economic Freedom Fighters voters.

Just 13% and 27% of registered DA and EFF voters believe South Africa is moving in the right direction. 

Promises, promises and the truth

Both the ANC and the Democratic Alliance have put job creation and the fight against unemployment at the heart of their 2014 election manifestos.

Launching his party's manifesto in January, President Jacob Zuma pledged to create six million work opportunities.

The DA has, in turn, taken issue with this promise, saying it will create six million "real jobs". It argues that the ANC's promise does not constitute sustainable, permanent employment.

The issue was the subject of a heated confrontation earlier this year when the DA marched on the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House to challenge the party's undertaking.

As part of a fully representative survey of 2222 registered voters, commissioned exclusively for the Sunday Times, respondents were asked how credible they found the jobs offer made by each of the parties.

The two offers were put to respondents and they were asked to rate each in turn. The range of five options was "not credible at all", "somewhat not credible", "somewhat credible", "very credible" and "uncertain".

The results suggest that the DA's offer is more credible among ANC voters than the ANC's promise is among DA voters.