Johannesburg - South Africa feels the ANC should not be allowed to be connected to any companies that receive government tenders.
This is a finding of a study released on Tuesday by TNS Research Surveys.
People were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: "The ANC should not be allowed to be connected to any company that receives government contracts."
While overall 55% agreed with this statement, 21% disagreed and a surprisingly high 24% gave a "don't know" response - much higher than usual, TNS said.
While the two smallest race groups - Coloureds and Indians - were the most definite on the issue, with very strong feelings that the ANC should distance itself from such companies, the highest "don't know" responses came from blacks and whites, with black females at 32% showing the highest level of indecision.
There were no differences by age group, but there were quite notable variations by area with Cape Town residents being the most definite on the issue, along with those in Pretoria.
People who were the least concerned were those on the West Rand and those in the Vaal Triangle/South Rand.
An analysis by wealth showed that people became more firm on the view that the ANC should not be connected with companies receiving government contracts as wealth rose.
The percentage agreeing with the statement fell to 40% for those in the lower income groups, rose to 55% in the middle to upper income groups and reached 70% for those in the top income groups.
Similarly, employed people were firmer on this issue (58%) than were the unemployed (48%).
In terms of language group, English speakers at 74% were the most likely to agree with the statement, followed by Afrikaans
speakers at 64%.
Among blacks, Sotho speakers were the least concerned at 40%, with Zulu speakers at 47%, Xhosa speakers at 48% and Tswana speakers at 52%.
While the majority of people felt that the ANC should distance itself from companies that received government contracts, there was a fair degree of ambivalence among the black population.
Other race groups were much firmer on the issue, this also correlating with wealth.
Other demographic differences were smaller, although those in Cape Town and Pretoria were more firm on the issue.
Given the high degree of uncertainty and ambivalence, it seems the issue needed some clarification and perhaps a code of conduct was worth considering, TNS said.
The study was conducted among 2 000 adults (1 260 blacks, 385 whites, 240 Coloureds and 115 Indians/Asians) in seven major
metropolitan areas.
- Sapa