{"id":367216,"date":"2020-01-17T14:19:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T12:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=367216"},"modified":"2020-01-17T14:19:01","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T12:19:01","slug":"despite-load-shedding-drought-and-belt-tightening-south-africans-are-still-optimistic-about-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/367216\/despite-load-shedding-drought-and-belt-tightening-south-africans-are-still-optimistic-about-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite load shedding, drought and belt-tightening – South Africans are still optimistic about 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africans are quite optimistic about the country’s prospects in 2020 – though a large number of people expect the year to be dotted with ‘more of the same’, including continued drought, economic woes, political squabbling, load shedding, and concerns about unemployment.<\/p>\n

This was the key finding from a new Ipsos survey, conducted at the end of 2019, which interviewed 3,590 randomly selected South African adults face-to-face in their homes and home languages.<\/p>\n

According to the findings, almost half (49%) of South Africans said that they view 2020 with optimism.<\/p>\n

By comparison, 16% said they were not optimistic, and a large proportion \u2013 35% – indicated that they had mixed feelings about the coming year.<\/p>\n

Globally, around half of people (52%) believe the economy will improve this year, while a comparable 56% of online South Africans share this opinion.<\/p>\n

81% believe 2019 was a bad year for South Africa, compared to 65% worldwide who believe this about their own country in 2019.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds (68%) of South Africans are also of the opinion that 2019 was a bad year for them and their families.<\/p>\n

85% of online South Africans look forward to 2020 to be a better year than 2019 for them personally.<\/p>\n

Working status does not influence optimism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ipsos noted that working status does not appear to influence optimism.<\/p>\n

“Against the background of South Africa\u2019s increasing unemployment figures, one would assume that those who have a job should look at the future with more optimism than those who are not employed,” it said.<\/p>\n

“However, this is not the case and those who work and those who do not work have largely similar feelings about 2020.<\/p>\n

“Even when looking in detail at the sub-groups of those South Africans who work full-time versus those who are unemployed (and mostly looking for work), we find that feelings about 2020 are similar.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Political parties<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ipsos noted that the\u00a0political party an individual would choose to vote for (if eligible to vote) has an influence on feelings of optimism about the year ahead.<\/p>\n

Although the differences are not vast, ANC supporters are the most optimistic at 55%, followed by EFF supporters at 51%, IFP supporters at 50% and DA supporters at 45% (taking those who \u201cagree\u201d and \u201cstrongly agree\u201d together.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Predictions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

These were the five most popular predictions from South Africans in 2020:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I will make some personal resolutions to do some specific things for myself and others in 2020\u201d (88% likely);<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cI am optimistic that 2020 will be a better year for me than it was in 2019\u201d (85% likely);<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cPeople around the world will spend more time online than watching TV\u201d (83% likely);<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cAverage global temperatures will increase\u201d (80% likely);<\/li>\n
  5. \u201cThere will be large-scale public unrest (such as protests or riots) in South Africa\u201d (77% likely);<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These were the five least popular predictions from South Africans in 2020:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u201cAliens will visit the earth\u201d (74% unlikely);<\/li>\n
    2. \u201cI will feel lonely most of the time\u201d (63% unlikely);<\/li>\n
    3. \u201cSelf-driving cars will become a usual sight on the streets of my town\/city\u201d (61% unlikely);<\/li>\n
    4. \u201cI will use social media less\u201d (60% unlikely);<\/li>\n
    5. \u201cA major terrorist attack will be carried out in South Africa\u201d (56% unlikely).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n

      Read: This is how the world sees South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      South Africans are quite optimistic about the country’s prospects in 2020 – though a large number of people expect they year to be dotted with ‘more of the same’, including continued drought, economic woes, political squabbling, load shedding, and concerns about unemployment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":365154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,2237],"class_list":["post-367216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-ipsos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367216"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367274,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367216\/revisions\/367274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}