South Africa’s strong economic performance of the past few years has not been registered simply in official growth rates, but also in the positive evaluations of ordinary citizens. At the same time, it seems that economic growth has not yet succeeded in reducing the number of South Africans who regularly go without the basic necessities of life.

This is one of the many important results revealed by the recent Afrobarometer survey of a representative sample of 2,400 South Africans, conducted in January and February 2006 by Citizen Surveys.