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The most popular politician in South Africa is someone who is not involved in active politics.

This is according to a poll conducted by the Social Research Foundation (SRF), in conjunction with The Common Sense, in February and March.

Respondents were asked how they felt about different politicians and how favourably or unfavourably they felt towards them.

The Common Sense determined the popularity of a politician by subtracting the proportion who said they felt unfavourably towards a politician from those who said they felt favourably towards them, to give them an overall net favourability score.

Using that formula, the person who had the highest net favourability score was Patrice Motsepe, whose net favourability score was eleven.

All other politicians, with one exception, had negative net favourability scores.

The only other politician who did not have a net negative favourability score was President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose net favourability score was zero, with equal proportions of people saying they felt favourably towards him as unfavourably.

Two politicians from the Democratic Alliance (DA) had relatively low negative favourability scores. New DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis had a net favourability rating of negative six. This was the same net favourability rating as Hill-Lewis's party colleague Cilliers Brink, the DA’s mayoral candidate for Tshwane for the 2026 local government elections (LGE).

John Steenhuisen, Hill-Lewis's predecessor as the leader of the DA, had a favourability rating of negative ten.

Most politicians from the African National Congress (ANC) had high negative net favourability ratings. ANC deputy leader Paul Mashatile had a net favourability rating of negative 24 while ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula had a favourability rating of negative 16.

Two former ANC politicians, Julius Malema and Jacob Zuma, had the highest negative net favourability ratings.

Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, had a net favourability rating of negative 29. This was the same rating that a former ANC leader and now leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, Jacob Zuma, had.

The relatively low negative favourability ratings that DA leaders had compared to ANC leaders could bode well for the DA ahead of the 2026 LGE.

In addition, the relatively high favourability rating for Motsepe (speculation abounds that he may be a future ANC leader) compared to other ANC politicians should also give that party pause for thought. If the party elects a leader who, most of the public view unfavourably this could see the party lose even more support in future elections.