Most South Africans think that affirmative action benefits the elites and the politically connected. This is according to a survey from the Social Research Foundation (SRF) of 1 004 South Africans conducted in June of this year.

That poll put the following question to participants: “Who do you feel benefits most from affirmative action today?” Participants were then given five options as answers: “The poor”, “The middle class”, “Elites”, “The politically connected”, and “Business owners”. 

Some 50.1% of all South Africans chose “The politically connected” and a further 19.9% chose “Elites” compared to 12.3% who chose “Business owners”, 8.9% who chose “The poor”, and 4.2% who chose “The middle class”. 

That means that 70% of all South Africans thought that the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action policies were “Elites” or “The politically connected”.

When broken down by race, 48% of black South Africans chose “The politically connected” and 21% chose “Elites”. For white South Africans it was 69% that chose “The politically connected” and 20% that chose “Elites”.

Similar trends existed across lines of race, home language, income, education, employment and party affiliation.