Zuma’s MK Party could steal ANC’s thunder in upcoming election, new poll shows

Zuma’s MK Party could steal ANC’s thunder in upcoming election, new poll shows

Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s newly formed political movement, MK Party, could acquire some of the ANC’s support base in the upcoming election, as new polling shows that Msholozi’ is a highly favoured candidate in KwaZulu-Natal.

A poll conducted by the Social Research Foundation (SRF) explored the popularity of Zuma in KZN and South Africa at large, and also explored which President KZN voters thought was the best.

The data from the poll also showed that black voters in KwaZulu-Natal considered Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma to be of the same value for the province.

For the national perspective on Zuma, 1,412 registered voters were questioned, while 2,432 registered voters from KZN participated in the survey.

Participants were asked to describe the former president based on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being a very cold unfavourable feeling, 50 being not particularly warm or cold and 100 being a very warm favourable feeling.

From a national perspective, data shows that Zuma is favoured by 29% of black voters, 15% Indian voters and 2% Coloured voters and 22% overall.

In KZN, 63% of black voters are “very favourable” of Zuma, so are 6% of Indian voters and 1% of White voters.

With regards to which President was the best for KZN, 47% of all races thought Nelson Mandela was the best for the province, while Zuma was voted the next best President for the coastal province.

Nelson Mandela was the most favoured President amongst the Indian population, with 75% of voters citing Madiba as the best while 1% thought Zuma was the best for the province.

Madiba was also the most favoured president among the black, white and coloured race groups.

No coloured voters thought Zuma was the best for KZN while 7% of white voters thought he was.

Both Zuma and Mandela both scored 43% with regards to who was the best for KZN during their tenure among Black voters.

The poll had a five percent margin of error.

“The data reveals that Jacob Zuma’s favourability score is 28.9% amongst all registered voters on a national level and 63.1% amongst all registered voters in KwaZulu-Natal.

“Beware that favourability does not easily translate into electoral support in the absence of an extremely strong party infrastructure,” the SRF report said.

“The Foundation’s estimate is that Mr Zuma’s new political venture might at best shave just a few political points from the ANC’s support base,”

Zuma, the former President of the ANC, has recently withdrawn his support for the ruling party and formed his own regime to claim back the political prowess he once wielded in office of the President.

But since the launch of the MK Party, ANC heavyweights including Bheki Cele and Fikile Mbalula have launched attacks on Zuma, calling him power hungry to some degree.

During a political event over the weekend, Cele was seen mocking Zuma and said he won’t be surprised if he became a councillor.

Secretary General of the ANC Fikile Mbalula told the media over the weekend that ANC members who joined Zuma’s party were “a problem” for the ruling party, the Star reported.

But Mbalula said Zuma was welcome back at the ruling party if he wanted to return.

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