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New polling* from The Common Sense and the Social Research Foundation shows that 67% of voters agree that the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA) should form coalitions for stability where no party wins a majority, while just 28% disagree.

The breadth of that support is striking. Among black voters, 68% support such an arrangement, while 70% of white voters agree. More importantly, majorities of the parties' own supporters are comfortable with cooperation. Fully 82% of ANC voters support an ANC and DA coalition in a hung municipality, as do 64% of DA voters.

The data are set out on the chart below.

Those numbers matter ahead of local elections in which several important municipalities could again be left without a governing majority. South Africa has already experienced the consequences of fragmented coalition politics, particularly in Johannesburg, where unstable alliances, repeated changes of mayor, and the disproportionate influence of small parties have made coherent government considerably harder.

The Common Sense has previously reported that Johannesburg is currently deadlocked, with the DA leading the ANC by 42% to 18%. That makes a DA/ANC coalition work in theory except that in practice the ANC in that province is allied to the EFF and MK.

The data as polled in July are set out below:

Similar degrees of deadlock are playing out across scores of South African urban centres. More than 200 municipalities are up for grabs in South Africa’s forthcoming local government elections and estimates are that over 100 of these, which also relate to major cities and other important towns and urban centres, may be deadlocked, with no party commanding a majority but the ANC and the DA jointly having a 50%+ majority.

The finding among ANC voters is particularly important. More than four in five support cooperation with the DA where no party commands a majority. That makes it difficult to argue that working with the DA is inherently unacceptable to the ANC electorate. The same applies on the other side. Almost two-thirds of DA voters are prepared to support an arrangement with the ANC in the interests of stability.

Beyond the imminent local government elections, the issue of DA/ANC cooperation is going to be fundamental to South Africa’s future national politics, where the parties are also deadlocked in a situation where the DA is holding around 25%+ of national support and the ANC is holding at levels of just around or below 40%.

Cementing a DA/ANC pact is just about the only way to ensure that an at all coherent national administration holds together in Pretoria, but that has not been done, nor is there any imminent sense that it will be. If that remains the case, unstable and disparate national and regional politics reflecting a hodgepodge of different and often contradictory alliances lies ahead. The effect of that, in turn, will be to accelerate the fragmentation of South Africa into the enclave scenario this newspaper has written so much about – as communities at ground level simply come to appropriate for themselves what were once functions executed by the state.

*The Social Research Foundation’s Q2 2026 Market Survey was conducted in conjunction with The Common Sense and carried out by Victory Research among 2 214 registered voters between 8 and 31 July 2026 using telephonic CATI interviews. National results are based on the full sample of 2 214 respondents. Metro results are based on samples of 504 respondents in Johannesburg, 508 in Tshwane, and 500 in eThekwini. A single frame random digit dialling design was used, drawing from all possible South African mobile numbers to ensure that every number had an equal probability of selection. National SIM card penetration exceeds 250.0%, more than 90.0% of adults own a phone, and mobile networks cover 99.8% of the population, providing universal practical coverage. The samples were fully weighted to match the relevant registered voter populations across all key demographics, including language, age, race, gender, education, income, and urban or rural location. Turnout modelling assigned each respondent a probability of voting based on questions measuring their likelihood of participation, with the primary turnout model set at 56.0%. The national results carry a margin of error of 2.1% at a 95.0% confidence level, while the Johannesburg, Tshwane, and eThekwini results each carry a margin of error of 4.4%. The survey has a design effect of 3.7938.