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A large proportion of African National Congress (ANC) voters think that service delivery would improve if the Democratic Alliance (DA) had to take over the municipality in which they live.

This is according to a survey* conducted by the Social Research Foundation in conjunction with The Common Sense in late February and early March.

People were asked the question: “In your opinion, would service delivery in your municipality improve, worsen, or stay the same if the DA governed your municipality by itself and not in a coalition?”

Overall, 55% of voters said they thought it would improve, 19% said they thought it would worsen, and 20% said it would stay the same.

Among ANC voters 39% said they thought service delivery would improve, and 24% said they thought it would worsen, with 26% saying they thought it would stay the same, with 11% undecided.

Among DA voters, 89% said they thought service delivery would improve, and 10% said they thought it would stay the same.

Respondents were asked the same question about the ANC.

Twenty-eight percent said they thought service delivery would improve, 34% said it would worsen, and 37% said it would stay the same.

Among ANC voters, 57% said they thought service delivery would improve, 7% said it would get worse, and 32% said it would stay the same.

Among DA voters, 10% said they thought service delivery would improve, 58% said things would get worse, and 30% said it would stay the same.

The DA has a far better reputation among ANC voters (in terms of service delivery) than the converse. In addition, the DA’s reputation on this metric is far better than the ANC’s among voters as a whole, which could bode well for the DA in the next local government elections, likely to be held towards the end of the year.

*The Social Research Foundation Q1 2026 Market Survey was commissioned by the Social Research Foundation supported by The Common Sense and conducted by Victory Research using a nationally representative telephonic CATI survey of registered voters (N=2,222), with metro samples upsized to over 500 respondents each in Johannesburg (n=503), Tshwane (n=510), and eThekwini (n=503). Fieldwork was conducted between 16 February 2026 and 6 March 2026 using a single-frame random digit dialling sampling design that draws from all possible South African mobile numbers, ensuring equal probability of selection and near-universal coverage given SIM penetration above 250%, more than 90% adult phone ownership, and mobile network coverage of 99.8% of the population. Respondents were screened to include registered voters only, and turnout modelling assigned each respondent a probability of voting based on likelihood indicators, with the primary model assuming turnout of 56.0%. Data were weighted to ensure the national sample reflects the demographic profile of the registered voter population across language, age, race, gender, location (urban/rural), education, and income, while metro samples were weighted to the demographic composition of voters in each metro. Results are reported at a 95% confidence level with a design effect (DEFF) of 1.762, producing margins of error of 2.1% nationally and 4.4% for each metro sample.