Credibility of StratAfrica.net at stake

There are serious questions about credibility of the company who claimed that the ANC would retain its majority in Tshwane.

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Pretoria - There are now serious questions over the credibility of the company whose poll claimed to show that the ANC would retain its majority in the capital in next year’s local government elections.

Alarm bells rang when it emerged that the research company that did the survey - StratAfrica.net - was not honest about the address on its website, claiming to operate from Centurion.

StratAfrica.net described itself as a research company and consultant for political parties.

But, when interrogated further, the company changed its tune and said it was only established six months ago and its survey in the city had been its first.

In the survey, it claimed that the ANC had the support of 53 percent of eligible voters and would continue to run the capital.

This was followed the DA with 35 percent support, EFF with 10 percent and 2 percent going to all the smaller parties combined.

These results, released to the media in a press release, were published in the Pretoria News on Friday.

In that report, the ANC welcomed the results and said they showed that the perception the ANC was losing voters in one of the cities widely touted to be highly contested was opportunistic.

At the time, the DA disputed the survey findings and some experts expressed caution.

According to the website of StratAfrica.net, its business address is given as 1015 Kruger Avenue. The company claimed to have an operation in New Jersey in the US too.

However, when the Pretoria News visited the Centurion premises, an industrial area, no one there knew about StratAfrica.net.

Different tenants occupy six open rooms partitioned with steel doors, and businesses include a toilet paper plant and gearbox repair workshop. All the businesses on the premises display signage but there is no sign of StratAfrica.net.

There are four other glass buildings with iron burglar bars which are unoccupied.

Efforts to ask business people in the same street about Strat-Africa.net proved fruitless as they said the name did not ring a bell.

MD Abdul, a shopkeeper at plot number 1013, shook his head when asked whether he knew about the company. A security guard, Portia Sete, has been working at plot 1016 for two years and had never heard of the company.

According to Google maps, the American location, 71 Mundet Place Hillside in New Jersey, is also an industrial area.

DA council member Lex Middendorp said he did not believe that it was a bona fide polling company. “We follow polls as politicians and we have never come across this polling company before,” he said.

StratAfrica.net spokesman Charl Oberholzer said it was a new research company and consultant for political parties. They had planned to take up the office space in Centurion, but had not. There was no specific reason for this.

He said the company had three managers - in Joburg, Pretoria and Centurion, all working from different premises.

The American address was used for mail orders, he said, because the company had a contact in the US. Oberholzer said the political research on the capital was the first the company had done.

He added that the survey consisted of 500 face-to-face interviews with South African citizens aged 18 and older. They were selected in a random, systematic fashion in a sample drawn of the City of Tshwane metropolitan area.

Professor Kealeboga Maphunye, research expert and Wiphold-Brigalia Bam chair in Electoral Democracy in Africa at Unisa, said personal interview polls were expensive and required time.

The 500 people sounded inadequate, Maphunye said, unless it was for a “dipstick survey” - a poll targeting a specific smaller area.

If this was the case, then the result should be presented as such and not offered as a general perception. “But without details such as exactly where the study was done, who was interviewed and from which socio-economic backgrounds, it becomes very difficult to make sense of the findings, let alone the credibility of the alleged survey,” Maphunye added.

Tshwane ANC regional spokes-man Teboho Joala said the report was not far off the mark in terms of gauging the status of the ruling party. He said the party was in fact above 53 percent based on its interaction with communities.

Freedom Front Plus councillor Piet Uys said he agreed with the survey in its prediction that the ANC would retain the capital. However, he hoped his party could double its seats.

The DA has its sights on Tshwane while EFF Gauteng spokesman Ntobeng Ntobeng Ntobeng said: “The ANC knows we are very strong and a threat to it. The mayor must start vacating his office because we are going to take over.”

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za

Pretoria News