About 70% of South Africans believe the country will be ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, a survey by African Response has found.
Jo’burgers were slightly more optimistic, with 76% of them believing that the country would be ready. Only 60% of Capetonians agreed.
Director of research company African Response, Anina Maree, said the survey also showed that lower-income groups appeared to be more positive than higher income groups.
Confidence in South Africa’s national team, Bafana Bafana, had risen from 44% in 2006 to 52% in 2007.
”However, there has been a notable decline in the confidence that South Africa will be able to meet the electricity demands of the 2010 World Cup,” Maree said.
This has dropped to 52% this year, from 69% last year.
Maree said this was possibly due to the recent power cuts affecting many areas across the country.
Confidence is lowest in Cape Town at 43%.
Respondents, especially those in Cape Town, were also concerned about security and policing.
Overall confidence in this regard stood at 55% this year, down from 62% in 2006.
More than half of the respondents felt that they were not receiving enough information about the progress made with regards to preparations for the 2010 World Cup.
”While overall confidence is up, there are obvious areas which South Africans believe could be improved on,” Maree said.
The 1 200 respondents were from Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria. They were interviewed in April, May and June this year. — Sapa