Thabo Mbeki's approval rating as president of South Africa has dropped since the beginning of the year, according to a TNS Research Survey released on Monday.

Researchers also found that ANC president Jacob Zuma's approval ratings had not seen a significant overall rise since they started measuring his ratings as party president in February.

The company conducted the two surveys among 2000 people living in metropolitan areas to gauge the approval rating for the two in their different leadership capacities.

They have conducted approval ratings for Mbeki for a number of years and found that the latest reading, taken in June 2008, showed a decline from 37 percent in April, to 32 percent in June.

In 2005 Mbeki's approval score averaged 61 percent, with a high of 66 percent in April 2005.

It dropped to 54 percent by the end of that year but hovered around that level until June 2007.

In September 2007 there was a drop of 14 percentage points to 40 percent, his lowest since April 2003. His approval average for 2007 was noted as 48 percent.

The approval rating among black respondents came in at 43 percent (down from 65 percent for the same period in 2007), whites 10 percent, (34 percent in June 2007) coloureds 15 percent (33 percent in June 2007) and Indians and Asians nine percent (43 percent in June 2007).

By black language groups, researchers found that his approval ratings were highest among isiXhosa speakers at 57 percent, and lowest among isiZulu speakers at 37 percent.

The company said analysis by area showed that in June 2008 approval for Mbeki in the Eastern Cape was 49 percent, with 76 percent in East London and 37 percent in Port Elizabeth.

It was lowest in Durban at 18 percent, and Cape Town at 21 percent.

His approval rating in Gauteng was 36 percent. For Johannesburg, excluding Soweto, it was 36 percent, Soweto 30 percent, East Rand 36 percent, West Rand 33 percent, and Vaal/South Rand 48 percent.

Pretoria was 37 percent and Bloemfontein was 65 percent.

Asking "Is Jacob Zuma doing a good job as president of the ANC?" researchers found that 37 percent said yes, a one percentage point increase from April and February's 36 percent and 44 percent said no, compared with 40 percent in April and 38 percent in February.

The number of people who said they did not know dropped to 19 percent, from 24 percent in April and 26 percent in February.

Black men showed the highest approval rating for Zuma, (58 percent), with black women at 46 percent.

Among black respondents his "yes" approval rating was 52 percent, up from 50 percent, whites nine percent, (16 percent in April and eight percent in February), coloureds 11 percent (six percent in April and 11 percent in February) and Indians and Asians 13 percent (12 percent in April, and 18 percent in February).

Zuma's approval rating also dropped off "markedly" for those aged 50 and over, researchers found.

In the Eastern Cape Zuma's approval percentage was 14 percent, (10 percent for April and February) with 13 percent in Port Elizabeth and 16 percent in East London, and in Cape Town it was 18 percent (from 14 percent in April and 17 percent in February).

In Durban it was 46 percent, down from 47 percent in April and 50 percent in February) and in Bloemfontein 50 percent, up from 40 percent in April and 48 percent in February).

His approval ratings were higher among isiZulu speakers (63 percent) and lowest among isiXhosa speakers (38 percent).

Researchers concluded that the fall in approval ratings for Mbeki had been across all race groups, with the Eastern Cape and Pretoria being the only areas to show "resilience".

Zuma's approval rating as president of the ANC is "still quite low", but the "proportion of people sitting on the fence is beginning to drop".

They concluded that "As the president's approval rating continues to fall, it is clear that, as yet, Jacob Zuma's rating is not yet rising to fill what may be becoming a perceived leadership vacuum."

Sapa