South Africans’ confidence in public institutions and elected representatives has declined in 2021, according to the upcoming South African Reconciliation Barometer (SARB) report.

Over three rounds of surveys, the SA Reconciliation Barometer has asked South Africans to evaluate how much confidence they have in various institutions between 2017 and 2021. The latest data suggests that South Africans’ have less confidence in most institutions compared to 2019.

Key findings (charts on following pages):

• South Africans’ confidence in institutions and representatives is generally lower than in 2019. There is greater public confidence in regulatory authorities (e.g. Hawks, SARS) than all levels of government and political parties.
• 42% of South Africans have a high degree of confidence in the President, which is greater than the share of respondents who have quite a lot or a great deal of confidence in the ANC (36%).
• The SABC is considered to be the most trustworthy institution included in the survey, with 52% of South Africans expressing quite a lot or a great deal of trust in the national broadcaster.

About the SA Reconciliation Barometer:

The SARB is a nationally representative public opinion survey on issues of governance and cohesion. The IJR has conducted the SARB survey since 2003 and the most recent round was conducted in October and November 2021. The survey was administered in multiple languages in all nine provinces via face-to-face interviews while adhering to COVID-19 restrictions. The sample size of the survey is roughly 2 400, which yields a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
The IJR will be releasing the first report of the 2021 SA Reconciliation Barometer on Wednesday, 15 December 2021 at 10:30. Register for the launch webinar on Zoom here: https://bit.ly/3xZdlON

Contact:
Mikhail Moosa, Project leader for SA Reconciliation Barometer (IJR)
Email: mmoosa@ijr.org.za
Mobile: 078 222 4497

Respondents were asked: Please indicate how much confidence you have in each of the following institutions, or
haven’t you heard enough to say?

Respondents were asked: Please indicate how much confidence you have in each of the following institutions, or haven’t you heard enough to say? Note: Only those responses coded ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ are shown.