In recent weeks several polls and media reports have indicated that President Jacob Zuma is losing popularity among voters. These polls have had limited samples and are therefore not nationally representative. The 5th round of the South Africa Afrobarometer survey in fact shows that Jacob Zuma garnered a 66% approval rating, and 63% of South Africans say they trust him somewhat or a lot.

However, there are strong, negative perceptions of President Zuma too among our society. How do we understand the differences in perceptions and the general approval of President Zuma? The Afrobarometer paper ‘Public Attitudes towards the President of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma’ provides some answers to these questions.  

The Afrobarometer is a comparative series of public attitude surveys that will be covering up to 35 African countries in Round 5 (2011- 2012). Based on representative national samples, the surveys assess citizen attitudes to democracy and governance, markets, and civil society, among other topics. The first round of surveys was conducted between 1999-2001 and covered seven Southern African countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), three countries in West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria and Mali) and two in East Africa (Uganda and Tanzania). This has expanded to 35 countries in Round 5.

To download the paper on public attitute towards the President of the Repulbic of South Africa please click the link at the top of this text.

This opinion piece was first published by Business Day and written by Idasa External Relations Manager Olmo von Meijenfeldt. The views presented in the opinion piece do not necessarily represent those of Idasa or Afrobarometer.