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Jacob Zuma

JOHANNESBURG. — ANC is on course to win nearly a two-thirds majority in the May 7 elections, a poll showed on Sunday, confounding analysts who had predicted a fall in support for the ruling party.
The poll, published by the Sunday Times, said the ANC was likely to win 65.5 percent of the vote, only a shade lower than the 65.9 percent it won at the last national elections in 2009.

The survey was conducted on April 4, after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela published a damning report into a R246 million state-funded security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s private home.

Madonsela judged that Zuma had benefited unduly from the upgrades, which included a swimming pool, chicken run and amphitheatre at his residence at Nkandla, and should pay back some of the money.

While overall support for the ANC remained largely unaffected by the Nkandla scandal, the poll said President Zuma’s personal approval ratings had slipped to 62 percent from 65 percent before Madonsela delivered her findings.

The poll also showed that the DA was on track to build its national support from 16.6 percent in 2009 to 23.1 percent this year.
It put support for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 4 percent.

The ANC has presided over strong economic growth since the end of apartheid in 1994, but President Zuma’s first term in office has been rocky.
The economy slipped into its first post-apartheid recession in 2009 and has struggled to regain the growth rates it logged before the global financial crisis. — Reuters.