Most South African voters think corruption is increasing – UJ Study
The majority of South Africans believe corruption is increasing but support for the ANC remains high according to the latest data from UJ.
The majority of South Africans are of the belief that corruption is on the increase according research conducted by University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Development.
In a comprehensive nationwide study UJ found that 72 percent of respondents felt that corruption in South Africa increased from 2014 until 2017.
The study aims to measure the influence of socio-economic rights delivery, issues of governance, corruption, land restitution, party loyalty among others on voter preferences.
That does however represent a small decrease from 76% of respondents in the 2018 study.
The research showed though, that voters were likely to overlook corruption as a factor and vote for the ANC under President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership.
Age did not appear to be a factor in voter’s decisions to vote for the ANC or opposition parties last year.
The study says: “We compared whether there was a statistically significant difference in how the respondents of different age groups voted. We compared three age groups: 18-34 years, 35-60 years and older than 60 years. In the youngest group, 65% vote ANC. In the middle-aged group, 62% vote ANC. In the oldest group, 64% vote ANC. We found no statistically significant difference in terms of voting choice of ANC or opposition party across the three age groups. “
In this year’s study however UJ recorded a marked increase in support for the ANC among voters 35 and over, while voters aged over 60 show the highest prevalence for preferring the ruling party.
The ANC is the party of choice for 56% of voters surveyed for the study published in April 2019, up fro 53% in 2018. The DA lost ground from a voter share of 22% in the 2018 survey to just 13% in 2019.