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How do South Africans view key Government foreign policies?
RS, South Africa's leading marketing insights company, conducted a survey in October amongst a sample of 2 000 SA adults from the seven major metropolitan areas of South Africa, interviewing them face-to-face in their homes, and asking their views on key issues.
One such issue concerned people's views on some of South Africa's foreign policies and how people feel about some key countries affecting South Africa.
What about Zimbabwe?
Adult South Africans in metro areas do not think much of Robert Mugabe. Only 11% feel he is doing a good job as President of Zimbabwe (compared with 59% feeling that President Mbeki is doing a good job as President of South Africa). Although there is some variation in the figure across different race groups, President Mugabe's approval rating is universally low:
Similarly, only 11% feel that Zimbabwe has a positive future with President Mugabe in power. Again, this was highest amongst black Africans (15%) and particularly low amongst white males (2%).
Seven out of ten people disagree that President Mugabe is doing a good job and that Zimbabwe has a positive future under him. A surprisingly high number of people are not sure - one in five in both cases.
Perhaps not surprisingly in the light of these perceptions, 58% of people feel that current policies in Zimbabwe ignore basic human rights. However, whilst only 13% disagree with this perception, a high three out of ten don't know. Differences by population group are high:
When people were asked about South Africa's role in relation to Zimbabwe, there is ambivalence:
"Should South Africa be doing more to intervene in policies in Zimbabwe?"
"Should South Africa impose sanctions on Zimbabwe?"
Again, the high proportion of people saying "don't know" suggests a fair amount of uncertainty in people's minds around the issue of Zimbabwe.
What about Iraq?
Only 15% of metro adults feel that America was right to invade Iraq, whilst 59% disagree and a quarter are not sure. Whites at 30% (and especially males at 37%) are the most likely to feel America's course of action was correct; 21% of coloureds, 18% of Indians and only 9% of blacks feel this way. People aged 50 years and older are also more militant in this regard with 19% agreeing.
What about the Israel and the Palestinian question?
When asked whether South Africa should impose sanctions on Israel because of what it is doing in Palestine, 26% agree, 36% disagree and a massive 38% don't know. Males are more likely to agree, especially black males at 32%. People aged 50 years and older are less likely to agree (19%), whilst younger people (under 24 years old) are more likely to agree (29%
What about President Mbeki's role in foreign affairs?
People were asked questions about the amount of time they feel the President spends on South Africa compared with other countries:
"Thabo Mbeki spends too much time out of South Africa"
"Thabo Mbeki devotes too much time to Africa and too little time to South Africa"
From this it is clear that, perhaps not surprisingly, people see Africa as a higher priority than elsewhere.
In summary
Kantar is the world's leading evidence-based insights and consulting company. We have a complete, unique and rounded understanding of how people think, feel and act; globally and locally in over 90 markets. By combining the deep expertise of our people, our data resources and benchmarks, our innovative analytics and technology we help our clients understand people and inspire growth.
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