MOST SOUTH Africans appear to be more than satisfied with the performance of their president. According to BuaNews, President Thabo Mbeki’s popularity ratings reached their highest ever recorded levels, with nearly eight out of ten South Africans voicing approval for his job performance, according to the Afrobarometer survey. The survey conducted face to face interviews in the eleven official languages with 2400 South Africans countrywide in January and February, of which 77% said they “approved” (49%) or “strongly approved” (28%) of Mbeki’s performance over the past year. This level of job approval is the highest the President has enjoyed compared to previous surveys, having increased by 26 percentage points since their survey of Government Performance Ratings in 2000. During that survey, the president had an approval rating among just over half of its respondents, at 51%. President Mbeki’s current approval rating of 77% puts him on a statistical par with former President Nelson Mandela, who reached his highest rating of 79% in 1998. Afrobarometer described the margin of difference between the two figures as “statistically indistinguishable”. According to the Afrobarometer, South Africans’ confidence in Mbeki’s leadership far outstripped that of Nigerians in President Olusegun Obasanjo at 32% and that of Zimbabweans in President Robert Mugabe at 27%. The two were found to have been the least popular leaders in the 18 countries surveyed by the Afrobarometer. At the top end of the scale, President Mbeki’s approval rating among citizens was only surpassed by that of Tanzanians in their new president, Jakaya Kikwete, at 94%, followed by the 90% approval rating expressed by Namibians in President Hifikepunye Pohamba. Mbeki’s level of support among citizens was found not only to be very high, but also to be well distributed across what was once a racially divided country. “Mbeki enjoyed majority support among respondents of all race groups,” the survey found.
