ANC Supporters Want Party to Govern with DA in Municipalities – Poll

The next local government elections (LGE) will be held within the next twelve months or so and it is likely that there will be a record number of hung councils, where no party receives enough support to govern alone.

This means that parties will need to govern in coalition.

Polling conducted at the end of last year by the Social Research Foundation (SRF) found that potential municipal coalitions between the two biggest parties in the Government of National Unity (GNU), the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC), were popular among voters.*

People were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “If the ANC and DA can form a majority in any municipality or metro after the next local government elections, they should do so and form a coalition together.”

Respondents could say they agreed strongly or somewhat with the statement or disagreed strongly or somewhat with it.

Forty-three percent of all respondents agreed strongly with the statement while 16% agreed somewhat. The proportion that disagreed strongly was 27% with 9% disagreeing somewhat.

This potential governing arrangement was particularly popular with ANC supporters. Fifty-nine percent of ANC voters said they agreed strongly with the statement, with 15% agreeing somewhat. Twenty-one percent disagreed strongly and 5% disagreed somewhat.

The potential coalition was also popular with DA voters, but not to the same degree.

Thirty-eight percent of DA voters agreed strongly that the ANC and DA should govern together in municipalities, with 21% agreeing somewhat. Some 24% disagreed strongly that the ANC and DA should govern together and 10% disagreed somewhat.

There was even some level of support for a municipal coalition between the DA and ANC among parties that are not part of the GNU, such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).

Thirty-two percent of EFF voters strongly supported the ANC and DA working together, with 8% agreeing somewhat. Some 34% disagreed strongly that they should work together and 21% disagreed somewhat.

Among MKP voters, 29% agreed strongly that the ANC and DA should work together and 26% agreed somewhat. Thirty-two percent disagreed strongly and 8% disagreed somewhat.

After the last LGE the only metros where a party won a majority of the vote were Cape Town, where the DA secured 58.3% of the vote, and Mangaung (Bloemfontein) and Buffalo City (East London), where the ANC won 50.6% and 59.4%, respectively.

In the other five metros the combined DA-ANC vote tally was as follows:

• Ekurhuleni: 67.0%
• Johannesburg: 59.7%
• Tshwane: 66.6%
• eThekwini: 68.1%
• Nelson Mandela Bay: 79.3%

*The Social Research Foundation’s Q4 2025 Market Survey was commissioned by the Foundation and conducted by Victory Research among 1 002 registered voters between 27 October and 14 November 2025 using telephonic CATI interviews. 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, with national sim card penetration exceeding 250%, more than 90% of adults owning a phone, and mobile networks covering 99.8% of the population, giving universal practical coverage. The sample was fully weighted to match the national registered voter population 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 52.8%. The poll carries a 4.0% margin of error at a 95% confidence level, with a design effect of 1.762.