In eThekwini, only one nationally significant politician is genuinely liked — and he is the one who cannot legally hold office. Jacob Zuma's +21.4pp net favourability towers over the field and single-handedly explains MK's 44% vote share; the party's strength rests not on a machine or manifesto but on one 83-year-old man under criminal indictment.

The DA's two positive scores are mirages built on ignorance: nearly half of voters don't know Steenhuisen, who had announced just two weeks before fieldwork that he would not seek re-election as DA leader, and three-quarters can't name his successor Hill-Lewis.

The IFP's Hlabisa is the quiet exception — modestly liked, still growing.

And the ANC owns the bottom of the chart, with Ramaphosa (−40.5pp) and Mashatile (−34.8pp) the two most disliked figures in the survey — an informed, settled rejection in a city the party governed for 25 years.

The picture is of an electorate pinned to one mortal, legally cornered figure, rejecting or ignoring every institutional alternative: MK must prove it can outlive Zuma, the ANC must find anyone who doesn't repel voters, and the DA must build a profile for a new leader three-quarters of the city have never heard of.