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New polling* from The Common Sense and the Social Research Foundation shows the share of African National Congress (ANC) voters with a favourable view of Cyril Ramaphosa has fallen from 84% in February last year to 74% in November, 71% in March and 69% in July. The unfavourable share stood at 5% in February 2025 and 13% in November, fell back to 5% in March, and rose to 22% in July, the first reading in which more than one in five of his own party's voters viewed him unfavourably. The gap between the two has narrowed from 79 points to 47. Ramaphosa remains far better liked among ANC voters than disliked, and the fall in his favourable share has been gradual rather than sudden. The chart below shows the share of ANC voters with a favourable and an unfavourable view of Ramaphosa at each of the four rounds in which he was asked about.

* The figures come from four Social Research Foundation Market Surveys conducted in conjunction with The Common Sense and carried out by Victory Research using telephonic CATI interviews. A single frame random digit dialling design was used in each round, with respondents screened for voter registration and then interviewed, and the sample was further quota-controlled for key demographic characteristics of South Africa's registered voter population. National SIM card penetration exceeds 250.0%, making telephonic interviewing a reliable method of reaching a representative sample of registered voters. Each sample was fully weighted according to the demographic parameters of the registered voter population. Figures in this piece are for ANC voters, a subgroup of each round's registered-voter sample. Each round carries a national margin of error of 4.0% at a 95.0% confidence level; the margin for a subgroup is wider.

The rounds were: 4 to 19 February 2025, 1 004 respondents, design effect 2.0127; 27 October to 15 November 2025, 1 002 respondents, design effect 1.7620; 20 February to 6 March 2026, 2 222 respondents, design effect 3.2675; and 8 to 31 July 2026, 2 214 respondents, design effect 3.7938.