IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the findings had prompted the commission to spend this week in the province to confront the “serious” and “worrying” developments in voter attitudes. The findings form part of the Voter Participation Survey (VPS), conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council between October 2025 and February 2026. The survey report, titled What is happening in KwaZulu-Natal?

Electoral Integrity, Civic Duty and Disillusionment, is based on a nationally representative sample of people aged 16 and older, interviewed in private households across the country. Support for democracy as the preferred system is no longer a majority view in KwaZulu-Natal, down to 43% from a high of 65% of provincial adults in 2015. A fatalistic view that the type of political regime “does not matter” was expressed by 23% of adults; 6 percentage points higher than in 2015, which 33% believed “in some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable”.

In addition, 92% of KwaZulu-Natal adults believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Only 7% think it is going in the right direction. Moepya said the findings raised concern about attitudes towards democratic governance.

“There are people who say: ‘Even if we don’t have elections, I’m happy to have someone going to public office by means that are non-democratic.’ That’s not okay. “If you pause there for a moment, that should be a reason for worry. We take it seriously.

That’s why we’re spending the week here. We are not looking the other way. It needs attention and must be resolved. We would rather fix democracy because that’s what we need to do.

We must have a functional democracy,” he said. IEC vice-chairperson Janet Love said the IEC had engaged stakeholders about the findings to work together to find solutions. “It’s a problem of the survival of our democracy.

It’s a problem of the survival of our country as a country that is not going to fall into all sorts of wrong hands,” she said. “This is something we have to work on together, whether we are from the IEC, whether we are from different community organisations, because we can’t let it happen under our watch.” IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo presented the survey findings, which revealed a significant decline in satisfaction with how democracy is working. In 2004, 54% of respondents in KwaZulu-Natal said they were satisfied.

By 2025, this had fallen to 6%, the lowest level among all provinces. The national average stands at 17%. The commission noted that “even adults who generally support democratic values … tended to state that their democracy was not working”.

High levels of dissatisfaction with economic conditions was widespread, with 88% of adults in KwaZulu-Natal saying they were dissatisfied with the general economic situation. The number of respondents and key conditions they believe had worsened over the past five years: • 92% said unemployment. • 91% said the cost of living. • 84% said corruption. • 80% said crime and safety. • 78% said service delivery. Looking ahead, 92% of respondents said they believed the country was “heading in the wrong direction”, while 88% said economic problems such as unemployment and inflation would probably worsen in the next five years.

Mamabolo said the survey revealed “a nexus between democratic functioning and satisfaction with the economic situation”. Feedback: IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya speaking during the week- long stakeholder engagement in KwaZulu-Natal. Decline in institutional trust Trust in public institutions has also declined markedly in the province.

Trust in national government has fallen from 65% in 2009 to 5% in 2025. Trust in parliament has declined from 51% to 7%, while trust in local government has decreased from 42% to 10%. Trust in political parties remains low at 5%, continuing a downward trend.

Trust in the IEC itself has also declined, from 74% in 2009 to 20% in 2025. This is below the national average of 32%. However, the survey distinguishes between overall trust levels and the views of those who participated in elections.

Among respondents who reported voting, 81% said they trusted the commission, compared with lower levels when all respondents are included. Confidence in electoral processes The survey also assessed confidence in the accuracy of vote counting and reporting during the 2024 national and provincial elections. In KwaZulu-Natal, 38% of respondents said they were “very or somewhat confident” that counting and reporting was accurate, while 55% said they were “not at all” or “not very” confident. The national aver