The first extensive survey of the impacts of rolling blackouts shows the effects they are having on your mental health, economic wellbeing and politics.

Just over eight in 10 people who responded to a nationally representative survey of middle-class homes are despondent about South Africa's future.

And nine in 10 laid the blame squarely at the door of "corruption and criminality", according to the SA Blackout Report by BrandMapp-Silverstone released this week.

Government incompetence, cadre deployment and a lack of political will follow closely as reasons ticked by respondents. Half of the almost 1,500 respondents said they think load shedding will never end.

Six in 10 respondents said they were not voting for the ANC in 2024.

This is important because it is the first test of political intentions related to load shedding. The ANC's leadership is drawn from the black middle class and the party has long worried about losing this rump of support.

The survey shows that the trend - first noted in the 2021 local government poll when the party lost majority control of most cities - has intensified.

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It is a sample of only middle-class...