Weekend Breakfast withRefiloe Mpakanyane

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has challenged a report by market research firm Ipsos which claims the party could lose 9% of its support in the 2019 general election and earn only 13% of the vote.

The latest Pulse of the People study was conducted from 20 April to 7 June 2018, interviewing 3, 738 South Africans.

According to the study the African National Congress (ANC) remains the top choice for South African voters and will most likely win the elections by 60%.

DA National spokesperson Solly Malatsi insists Ipsos reports are often inaccurate.

There has been previous instances of incorrect conclusions. In 2009 they under communicated what the DA's electoral prospects would be, the same was in 2010 and 2016 through different polls. Secondly, the sample included 15 year old's, no 15 year old is going to be of voting age next year.

— Solly Malatsi, DA National Spokesperson

We do our own polling and they are way off the mark.

— Solly Malatsi, DA National Spokesperson

Research Manager at Ipsos Antonia Squara explains how they went about the research.

She says negative publicity may be contributing to the potential loss of support.

This is completely expected based on the negative publicity that the DA has had. We also see that the ANC is doing better and that is only because the most drastic change in the ANC has been the change in leadership.

— Antonia Squara, Research Manager at Ipsos

Click on the link below to listen to the full conversation...