Two in three Ekurhuleni voters say the metro has not made them safe, poll finds
A survey put to residents before the recent killings of women in Ekurhuleni found 57% saying the municipality and mayor had failed on safety over five years, with the ANC's own support level behind the yes vote.
Most Ekurhuleni residents asked whether the metro and its mayor had made their part of the city safer over the past five years said no, and the margin is one the ANC will have to answer for in the closing weeks of the campaign.
The finding was discussed on eNCA (YouTube) this week. In the survey, 57% of respondents said the municipality and the mayor had not made their area of Ekurhuleni safe in the last five years. Only 28% said they had, a figure the broadcast noted sits in line with the ANC’s own numbers. On that split, roughly two voters say the metro has failed on safety for every one who says it has delivered.
The timing matters. The question was put to residents and most of the responses came in before the recent killings of women in Ekurhuleni that have dominated discussion of crime in the city, the broadcast reported. That means the 57% was recorded before those deaths, and the broadcast’s own assessment was that the picture could be worse now.
Safety has been pushed into the campaign by the ANC itself. The broadcast noted that Mbalula has argued voters should weigh safety when they vote. The poll suggests they already are, and not in the governing party’s favour.
The survey also tested service delivery, asking whether it decides where residents put their cross. The broadcast framed safety as the sharper problem for a party in control of the metro, and set out the task facing the ANC over the last three weeks of the campaign: to show voters it has a plan and to turn a two to one verdict around.
Ekurhuleni is run by the ANC, which gives the numbers their weight. A metro that cannot persuade its own residents it has made them safer in five years is defending more than a record on paper. It is defending the basic claim that it is fit to keep running the place.
The poll is a sample of opinion, not a verdict on the metro’s policing or its spending. What it records is what residents told researchers about how safe they feel and who they hold responsible. On that measure, the answer is blunt.
The source broadcast is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIGjzJhpiE.
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