White and coloured South Africans have little confidence in ANC President Jacob Zuma, the latest Ipsos-Markinor survey has found.

The results of the survey released on Thursday, show that few believe he is innocent of corruption and accept his explanation that he is a victim of a political conspiracy.

Less than half of ANC supporters think Zuma is innocent of corruption.

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema is rated poorly by most South Africans.

The survey was conducted between October 3 and 22 last year and a sample of 3500 South Africans from all walks of life and geographical areas was interviewed.

Only one in every 10 white South Africans had confidence in Zuma and coloured South Africans followed a very similar pattern.

Malema was given poor ratings across the board and only a fifth of ANC supporters (and black South Africans) had confidence in him.

He fared particularly poorly among white, coloured and Indian South Africans.

On Zuma's corruption charges, the survey found there were huge differences between ANC supporters (and black South Africans) and white, coloured and Indian South Africans.

On average, only around one in every 10 white, coloured and Indian South Africans thought Zuma was innocent (41 percent of ANC supporters agreed).

Less than half of ANC supporters and less than a fifth of white, coloured and Indian South Africans agreed that Zuma was the victim of a political conspiracy to derail his presidential prospects.

"Clearly this explanation does not hold sway in a meaningful way with large parts of the electorate," Ipsos-Markinor said.

Former president Thabo Mbeki received higher ratings than Zuma among white, coloured and Indian South Africans, while ANC supporters (and black South Africans) rated Zuma and Mbeki very similarly.

President Kgalema Motlanthe received the most consistent ratings across the board.