400 000 SMSs against crime
2007-01-29 23:49
Johannesburg - Several hundred thousand South Africans have spoken out on crime via SMS, and the majority feel that it is plain out of control.
The SMS poll was launched on SABC2, on Tim Modise's show Lekgotleng le Modise.
By early Monday, 400 000 SMS messages had been sent, said the company that provides the service.
They say it's the biggest poll of its kind so far.
Viewers are asked each Monday evening to give their views on the subject under discussion on the show.
On Monday last week, viewers were asked to send an SMS if they thought crime was out of control in South Africa.
Only those who agreed were to respond.
Swell of messages
Since Friday last week, there was a huge swell of messages, and people were SMS-ing each other in order to get the maximum response.
It spread like wildfire, with even London-based South Africans responding.
Paulo do Carmo, executive chief of Marketel, the suppliers of the SMS service, said that messages had been pouring in since Friday.
"Last week, we were getting around 300 to 400 a day, about the usual average, but since Friday the taps have opened.
"I've never seen such a remarkable knock-on effect. We experienced record feedback, here.'
He said people could send the SMS more than once, but this could be picked up in the statistics, "and it wasn't really a factor".
Innovation
When he announced the results of the poll at 20:00 on Monday night, Modise said that when the production team were transferring the data of the results from Marketel, the system crashed.
The last officially verifiable figure was 352 000.
The question put was simple and viewers just had to respond with a "yes", but there was eventually quite a bit of innovation.
The original SMS message read: "If you think crime is out of control in South Africa, SMS 'Yes' to 33588 - a poll for the Tim Modise programme."
Later, an SMS was circulated with the expanded message: "Please send to as many people as possible and show Mbeki is wrong. Take a stand against crime."
People also used e-mail messages to whip up support.
Result 'not valid'
Richard Rice of Synovate South Africa, who conducts research on opinion polls and quality, said the result was not valid because the question had become more loaded and emotion had been whipped up.
"The result will also not reflect the entire population because there are many people who don't have access to cellphones or TV," he said.
"But there is a clear message in the tempo and the number of people who took part."
In response, Do Carmo emphasised that the SMS poll had been an instant poll.