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Views on 2010 - The Year Ahead

Currently two-thirds of adult South Africans (66%) believe that the 2010 FIFA Soccer World
Cup is going to be a success and just below six in every ten (56%) think that, in general, the
country is heading in the right direction. A third (35%) agrees that their families are better off
than a year ago. Looking ahead, almost half (46%) say that, in a year’s time, they will be better
off than today.

These are some of the findings in the recent Socio-Political Trends survey conducted by Ipsos
Markinor. This survey is part of the “Pulse of the People” public opinion series and is
conducted bi-annually amongst a nationally representative sample of 3 500 adult South
Africans. Fieldwork for the current study was done from 21 October to 13 November 2009.
Respondents were randomly selected according to strict scientific procedures in order to
achieve a representative sample of the South African adult population. Depending on the
response rate, the sample error for the poll is between 0.72% and 1.67%.

When asked to give their opinion on the statement “The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup hosted
by South Africa will be a success” the findings show that South Africans are putting their
support behind this very important event in our country:

Although one in every ten (9%) is not sure (yet), only a small percentage (8%) of adult South
Africans believes that the World Cup is not going to be a success.

When asked whether they think that the prices for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup are too
high, 45% of South Africans agreed. Only 12% of South Africans disagreed with this
statement, echoing concerns expressed in the media that the price of the tickets might be an
inhibiting factor for South Africans.

However, a third (33%) agreed with the statement “I am planning to watch at least one soccer
match at a stadium during the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa”. Not
surprisingly, a larger proportion (41%) of males than of females (24%) indicated that they plan
to watch a live match.

With South Africa recovering from the global economic recession, hosting the FIFA Soccer
World Cup and entering the second decade of the millennium, 2010 is going to be an exciting
year.

Supporting the positive feelings about soccer, over half (56%) of South African voters think the
country is heading in the right direction. This group grew substantially over the last six months:
in May 2009 only 43% thought the country was heading in the right direction. A year ago, in
November 2008, this proportion stood at only 38%.

More than six in every ten (63%) ANC voters think that the country is heading in the right
direction, whereas only a third (32%) of DA supporters share this opinion. Among the other
opposition parties the mood is more positive and just over half (53%) of COPE supporters and
45% of IFP supporters agree that the country is going in the right direction.

More males than females believe that the country is heading in the right direction as shown in
the table below. Females are more uncertain about this issue.

Looking towards the future, when asked how they think their families’ lives will be like in a
year’s time, it is interesting to see that as people get older they get more pessimistic about the
future, as illustrated in the table below.

Almost six in every ten (58%) adult South Africans believe that their children and the
children of family and friends have a bright future ahead of them, while 29% believe that their
children have a bleak future ahead of them. Black people are most optimistic (61%) when
thinking about their children’s future in this country while white people are least optimistic
(41%), as shown in the table below.

However, if these opinions are compared with those expressed in earlier surveys, it is clear that
South Africans look towards their children’s future with more hope than was the case a few
years ago. This bodes well for the future.

*Children in South Africa have good future prospects: *