South Africans are generally becoming more positive about the overall democratic regime and more optimistic about where it will be in ten years time, according to the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).
The institute released the results of its latest ”Afrobarometer” survey of attitudes toward democracy, citizenship, and governance on Tuesday.
It found that 54% of all South Africans now give an overall positive mark to ”our current system of government”, up 18 points since 1995 when only 36% did so.
About two thirds of all South Africans feel that instruments of state authority, such as the courts (68%), police (67%) or revenue service (60%) have the right to make people abide by their decisions and rules.
Only 60% feel that the Constitution reflects the values and aspirations of all South Africans, while popular trust in political institutions remains at relatively low levels.
Just over one third trust the president (37%), and just under a third trust Parliament (31%), the survey found.
The survey found 74% of South Africans offer an optimistic evaluation of how they believe the political system will be in ten years time. White South Africans’ positive assessments have increased from 24% in 1994 to 44%. Forty-six percent of whites offer a positive assessment compared to only 12% in 1995.
Public assessments of the amount and quality of democracy supplied by the political system are declining.
Less than half (47%) say the country is fully or largely democratic, down sharply from 60% two years ago. Another one third (37%) say the country is democratic, but with ”major problems”.
Forty four percent are ”satisfied with the way democracy works in South Africa”, down from 52% in 2000 and 63% in 1998.
One half of the public (51%) approve of the job President Thabo Mbeki has done over the past year, while less than half (45%) are satisfied with the performance of Members of Parliament.
However, public assessments of the extent of official corruption have improved significantly over the past two years.
The proportion saying ”all” or ”most” government officials are involved in corruption fell from 50% to 27% — for MPs it fell from 45% to 22%, and for the president’s office from 25% to 13%.
An average of just one in 20 say they have been victimised in the past year by corrupt officials while trying to obtain government services, such as registering to vote, placing a child in primary school, getting an official document, household services, help from the police, or a government loan or grant.
The survey also found strong regional disparities in government capacity.
For instance, while just one in ten people in the Northern Cape (12%), or one in five in the Western Cape (22%) reported difficulty in obtaining household services, this was true of four in ten in the Northwest (42%), KwaZulu-Natal (44%), and one half of people in Limpopo (55%).
Of significance, is that South Africans across the board seem to feel that the country is being governed no better than it was under the apartheid regime.
Just 32% of all respondents — and just 38% of black South Africans –think that government is more trustworthy today than it was under apartheid. – Sapa