A full 92% of black voters – and 79% of ANC voters – in the Western Cape polled in a recent survey believe South Africa is going in the wrong direction.
In contrast, significantly lower percentages – 79% of black voters, and 48% of ANC voters – feel the same way about the Western Cape.
Overall, 58.8% of all registered voters in the Western Cape think the province is going in the right direction.
The data comes from a July 2023 survey by the Social Research Foundation (SRF), tracking the opinions of registered voters in the Western Cape on whether South Africa, and the Western Cape, are moving in the right or wrong direction.
In each case, the results are given by home language, highest level of education, employment status, residential area, race, and party affiliation.
The report notes that a ‘significant majority of voters in the Western Cape, regardless of language, level of education, employment status, residential area, race or party affiliation believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction’.
It says this finding is in line with SRF surveys from June 2022 and March 2023.
The report says that while just short of 60% of all registered voters in the Western Cape think the province is going in the right direction, ‘this data did however split sharply with higher socio-economic brackets demonstrating considerably more positive sentiment about the trajectory of the province, compared to residents in lower socio-economic strata’.
The three graphs that follow show, by residential area, race, and party, the results of the survey question, ‘In general, are things in South Africa going in the right direction or the wrong direction?’.
The last three graphs show, by residential area, race, and party, the results of the survey question, ‘And what about your province? Do you believe things are going in the right or in the wrong direction?’.
The survey was conducted telephonically among a sample of 2 590 geographically and demographically representative registered voters in the Western Cape. The survey has a provincial margin of error of 2.9%. (Totals may not add up to 100% where rounding has occurred.)
Read the full report here.
The SRF is a think tank focusing on public policy issues and the promotion of democracy.
[Photo: Petr Magera/Unsplash]