Government criticism is good: survey

Most of South Africa’s youth support the notion of speaking out against government wrongdoing, a survey revealed today.

About 54% of them said it was the right of every citizen to be vocal in this regard.

About 20% felt that voicing criticism of government amounted to an attack on democracy.

Another 20% said negative talk about government was a direct attack on the ANC.

The survey was conducted by consumer-insights company Pondering Panda on January 23 and 24, shortly after debate on the FNB “You can help” campaign.

The campaign, which is promoted through a television advertisement, features children reading their hopes for the country.

One of the children reads: “The challenges before us cannot be solved by money, petty politics, protests or violence. All the great things we’ve done, we’ve done by helping each other.”

Around 2 328 people between the ages of 13 and 34 were interviewed nationally by cellphone in the survey.

At least 35% of them said government was making South Africa’s problems worse.

Around 31% said the problems would not change under the current leadership, and 30% said government had made progress in resolving some of the country’s issues.

Pondering Panda spokesperson Shirley Wakefield said: “These results show that a substantial number of young people are disenchanted with a perceived lack of delivery and leadership within government.”

- Sapa