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New polling* from The Common Sense and the Social Research Foundation shows the Democratic Alliance (DA) is the only party that more likely voters expect to improve service delivery than to worsen it if it governed their municipality alone. Fifty-six percent say things would improve under a DA majority and 17% say they would get worse. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are the only party where the balance runs the other way, with 45% expecting things to worsen against 29% expecting improvement. For the African National Congress (ANC) and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, voters are evenly divided: 29% against 33% for the ANC, and 29% against 32% for MK. Under the ANC, the most common answer is that nothing would change at all. The chart below shows the share of likely voters who say service delivery in their municipality would improve or worsen if each party governed it alone.

* The Social Research Foundation's Q1 2026 Market Survey was conducted in conjunction with The Common Sense and carried out by Victory Research among 2 222 registered voters between 20 February and 6 March 2026 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. 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 sample was fully weighted to match the 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 56.0%. Figures in this piece are for the 1 199 likely voters under that model. The survey carries a national margin of error of 4.0% at a 95.0% confidence level and has a design effect of 3.2675.