Trust in government crumbles as South Africans call for change: survey
The South African government has been named as the leadership least trusted by its people, according to a survey by the world’s largest public relations firm, Edelman.
Edelman Intelligence conducted 25-minute online interviews between October and November 2016.
The survey sampled more than 33,000 people across the globe, including 1,150 respondents from South Africa.
Globally, South Africa ranked as the 5th most distrusting nation (24th out of 28 countries) among the informed population, and the 13th most distrusting among the general population (16th out of 28 countries).
Four questions were asked in order to determine a country’s trust rating, gauging respondents’ sense of injustice, lack of hope, confidence in institutions and desire for change:
- Is there a sense of injustice stemming from the perception that society’s elites have co-opted the system to their own advantage at the expense of regular people?
- Is there hope that the future will be better for you and your family?
- Is there a lack of confidence in the leaders of societal institutions to solve the country’s problems?
- Is there a desire for forceful reformers in positions of power that are capable of bringing about much-needed change?
The questions specifically refer to current leadership, Edelman noted, and a low score denotes a high sense of injustice, low hope for the future, and strong desire for change.
From the survey responses, only 15% of South Africans surveyed indicated that they still had any faith in the government, continuing the country’s downward trend, down 1% from 2016’s study. This was the lowest score out of the 28 countries assessed.
This decrease in trust was reflected worldwide, however, with 14 different countries across the world showed a decline in trust ratings – led by Mexico, South Korea and Australia being the biggest fallers.
Elsewhere in the survey South African responses pointed to low trust in other institutions as well – with 39% trusting local media, 58% trusting NGOs, and 56% trusting businesses.
Trust in government – 28/28
Trust in media – 19/28
Trust in NGOs – 14/28
Trust in Business – 11/28
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