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Not our hero, black SA tells Mugabe survey
Robe Rose, Business Day (SA)
May 24, 2005

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A47044

ONLY one in seven black South Africans believes Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is doing a good job, says a new study - a pattern that belies the perception that black South Africans typically still regard him as an African liberation hero.

Mugabe has always received applause each time he visits SA from the mainly black community, suggesting he was quite popular. But the research paints a different picture.

Conducted by Research Surveys for a new book by journalist Geoff Hill, the study is the first into the attitudes of South Africans towards Zimbabwe and that country’s land-reform programme. Interviews were conducted with 2000 South Africans, 1400 of them black, as part of Hill’s efforts to assess what lessons Zimbabwe could offer SA.

Only 15% of black South Africans believe Zimbabwe will have a positive future while Mugabe remains in power, and less than 4% of whites and 8% of coloureds support Zimbabwe’s former liberator, the research shows.

Two-thirds of all South Africans - black and white alike - say SA should not adopt Zimbabwe’s policy of expropriating land for redistribution.

The study finds that white South Africans were more xenophobic than blacks. Sixty-five percent of whites agree that white foreigners should be allowed to stay in SA, but only 52% of this group agree that black immigrants should be allowed to stay.

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