PhD student Ivan Steenkamp said the ANC would still be in control of the Northern Cape after the May 29 elections. Picture: Sandi Kwon Hoo
WHILE politicians are pulling out all the stops to impress voters before they head to the polls, a survey has predicted that the ANC will achieve a 62.69 percent majority in the Northern Cape in the upcoming national general elections.
The survey identified the three main contenders as being the ANC, the EFF and the DA, with the PA, the GOOD Party, the ACDP and the IFP predicted to garner less than one percent of the vote.
Up-and-coming parties such as the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, Bosa, Rise Mzanzi, Action SA and the ACT, which could influence the face of the political landscape, were not included in the study.
Many disillusioned voters in the city are still undecided about where they will put their mark on the ballots.
The voter perception survey, which was conducted by PhD student and senior consultant at Ever-Excellence, Ivan Steenkamp, indicated that the EFF would become the official opposition in the Northern Cape with 11.12 percent of the vote.
Steenkamp said the DA was placed as the third favourite, although party support would drop to 6.49 percent, compared to 8.46 percent during the 2019 elections, with the PA possibly securing 4.41 percent.
Steenkamp projected that the FF+ would obtain just over one percent of the vote.
According to the survey, 7.8 percent of the population in the province are undecided, while 6.1 percent indicated that they would abstain from voting.
Contrary to previous media statements, the spokesperson for the MK Party in the Northern Cape, Neville Mothlabakwe, stated this week that party president Jacob Zuma had not included any visits to the Northern Cape in his pre-election campaign.
ANC provincial secretary Deshi Ngxanga stated that MK was “not a factor” in the Northern Cape.
“They tried but they didn’t get it right,” he said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa led a presidential imbizo in Kuruman on Thursday.
Steenkamp stated that voters in the Province were swayed by party loyalty, leadership and youth empowerment initiatives.
“There is a 67.19 percent nod of approval in President Cyril Ramaphosa and a confidence rating of 68.57 percent in Premier Zamani Saul. While 36.56 percent of voters rated the performance of the ANC over the past 30 years as positive to very positive, 33.29 percent of voters are dissatisfied with the ANC’s abilities,” said Steenkamp.
He added that voters were concerned about bread-and-butter issues such as the provision of water, electricity and housing.
“The biggest concerns were expressed over unemployment, high incidents of crime and the bad state of the roads and potholes in all districts of the Province. Around 16 percent of voters are perturbed over corruption.“
Steenkamp indicated that support for the ruling party in the Province would increase from 60.54 percent in 2019 to 62.49 percent this year.
He stated that the survey would report on the “new kids on the block” after the elections.
“There are over 325 parties contesting, therefore my analysis focused on established political parties. The percentage of other competing parties amount to around four percent of the vote.”
Steenkamp said the voter perception survey that was conducted in the Northern Cape was funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Pennsylvania University in the United States of America.