đź”’ Alec Hogg: SA business trusted, Govt not

Ahead of every jam-packed World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, I’d spend considerable time devising my schedule. The first diary entry was always a pre-dawn release of the latest Edelmans Trust Barometer. A must attend event – the survey’s longevity (since 2001) and scale (33 000 interviews) makes it the world’s best assessment of how each country’s citizens regard their leaders.

Also read: Alec Hogg: Shades of ’87 in punter arrogance

Davos 2021 has been postponed and switched to Singapore. The Trust Barometer, however, was published as usual last week. There’s a smidgeon of good news for SA, one of 28 countries covered. With the trust of just 20% of citizens, the ANC government has long propped up the table. So, 2021’s 7 point rise provides hope and with Nigeria now added, SA has risen to second last.

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At the other end, entrepreneur-turned-presidential-aspirant Herman Mashaba will be encouraged to see SA’s business sector (61%) enjoys twice as many citizens’ trust than its government. This divergence suggests organised business’s “quiet diplomacy” approach is flawed. Big Business has sufficient support from the public to, instead, fight its corner with the directness of a Neal Froneman.

As a public relations company, Edelmans will never be short of dramatic language. Even so, it’s a jolt to read the survey “reveals an epidemic of misinformation and widespread mistrust of societal institutions and leaders around the world.” Calling this “a rampant infodemic” the firm says we enter 2021 in “an environment of information bankruptcy”. No quiet diplomacy there.

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