Quite at odds with much of what gets read and seen on social media and in the behaviour of politicians, the common ground among South Africa’s people is vast and runs across race, class, party support, and geography. It is starkly visible around South Africa’s most serious national and policy issues, from how South Africans think about resolving the past, to the means of building an inclusive future, and even a crossing of the final racial and political Rubicon.

A good place to start seeing that common ground is around South Africa’s most important policy priority – empowerment – and, via it, how society thinks the country needs to resolve its past and build a great future. If South Africans were deeply divided on how to do those things, it would be very difficult to see a way through to a long-term stable and prosperous future.

But they are not divided. Strong bi-partisan (African National Congress [ANC] and Democratic Alliance [DA], and beyond that) and multi-racial majorities of South Africans agree that the policy is important but that it is not working and needs to be fundamentally reformed by prioritising actual socio-economic disadvantage over race in deciding where resources need to be invested to get poor people into the middle classes.

An empowerment policy that prescribed that it was correct for the state to use taxpayers’ money to invest in projects that could improve the life chances of kids born into relative poverty (regardless of race) would be popular across South Africa’s historical divides.

Or try an even more fraught question: whether, given the past and the country’s present struggles, it might be best for whites to leave, as it would be easier then to build a better future. That question really goes to the heart of determining whether what South Africa has attempted to do since 1994 has a prospect for success.

The data are encouraging for anyone who believes in building a stable, united future, with a strong majority of more than 70% of people saying the whites should stay.

Or take the arguably even hotter issue of the chanting of the “Kill the Boer” slogan. Polls show that that same 70%-plus majority thinks that it’s an abomination and has no place in society. Just 20% think it’s harmless. And almost no one thinks it is a good idea.

Data on political cooperation reinforce the broader point that can be drawn from the three examples above: South Africans again share much more in terms of common values and common understanding than the impression put out around the country.

In a recent survey, respondents were asked whether, in municipalities where no party wins a majority, the ANC and DA should strike a pact to co-govern. Again, that same near seven in ten agreed.

That is an incredibly important finding, as it in practice shows that a strong majority of South Africans are willing to cross the final racial and political Rubicon, as it were, in working together to build a prosperous and stable new future for all the country’s people.

Taken together, these findings tell a story that South Africa’s greatest asset is the good sense of its people. They are together on values and on how the country should be governed. That makes it much easier to fix the country than would be the case if the opposite were true and people were fundamentally divided on values and opposed on the policies needed to turn the place around – all important lessons that politicians must be constantly reminded of.