OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday
NEXT week’s municipal elections in South Africa could be closer than previously expected in most cities, with the ruling party and the opposition neck and neck several major metropolitan areas, according to a new poll.
The elections, which will change the face of local government, setting up 284 “mega-councils” to replace the current 843, are seen as a test of the popularity of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) 18 months after Thabo Mbeki took over as South Africa’s president from Nelson Mandela.
In Pretoria, the independent Markinor poll found, the ANC has 37% support to the main opposition Democratic Alliance’s (DA) 35%.
The survey showed that 44% of Johannesburg residents would vote for the ANC if the election were held tomorrow, with the DA receiving 33% support. This was the first time ANC support had fallen below 50% in South Africa’s biggest city, said Markinor.
The poll covered 1800 people in South Africa’s major metropolitan areas, with populations of more than 250000.
But sample sizes for individual areas were relatively small, which meant its findings “should be treated as broad trends and not as any prediction of the outcome of the election,” Markinor said.
The two parties are also in a close race in Cape Town, Durban and the East and West Rand.
In Cape Town, the DA would garner 40% support to the ANC’s 28%, but with a high 18% of respondents undecided. 35% percent of the respondents in Durban would vote for the ANC, followed by 27% for the DA, the survey found.
The Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) showed eight percent support in Durban, but the “hidden vote” factor, with 16% undecided, could lift its support significantly on election day.
Only about two percent of the respondents indicated that they were not interested in voting on December 5, the poll showed.
Last year polls before the national election also showed a poorer showing for the ANC in Gauteng than actually turned out to be the case.
The ANC will probably win comfortably in the metropolitan areas of Port Elizabeth, East London and the Vaal Triangle. – AFP