Polling* from The Common Sense and the Social Research Foundation shows that many voters are unfamiliar with Herman Mashaba, the leader of ActionSA and its candidate for mayor in Johannesburg. In July 2026, 49% of voters had no view of him. Only 15% held a favourable view of him and 26% held an unfavourable view of him. This is not new. In every poll since July 2022, between 42% and 50% of voters have had no view of him. What has changed is how many hold a favourable view: 24% in July 2022, down to 15% now. The chart below shows how voters have rated him in each poll since July 2022.

*The figures come from nine Social Research Foundation Market Surveys of registered voters, each a national telephone poll with results weighted to the voting population. The rounds were: July 2022 (3 204 respondents, design effect 3.17), March 2023 (1 517 respondents, design effect 2.32), October 2023 (1 412 respondents, design effect 3.06), April 2024 (1 835 respondents, design effect 3.19), September 2024 (1 204 respondents, design effect 1.34), February 2025 (1 004 respondents, design effect 2.01), November 2025 (1 002 respondents, design effect 1.76), March 2026 (2 222 respondents, design effect 3.27) and July 2026 (2 214 respondents, design effect 3.79).