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Polling from The Common Sense and the Social Research Foundation, conducted in March 2026*, shows that both the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) receive majority positive ratings for their performance in the Government of National Unity (GNU), alongside continued public support for the coalition arrangement itself.

On the ANC, a combined 52% of respondents rate its performance positively, including 15% who say it is performing very well and 37% quite well. Negative ratings stand at 41%, with 23% saying quite poorly and 18% very poorly. A further 7% of respondents are undecided.

The DA records higher overall approval. A combined 67% rate its performance positively, including 18% very well and 49% quite well. Negative sentiment is lower at 21%, with 13% saying quite poorly and 8% very poorly. Around 13% of respondents are undecided.

The data stand at odds with a lot of mainstream analysis that the GNU is failing in the minds of South Africa’s people, or that ANC and DA voters alike resent the arrangement.

These findings come against a backdrop of consistently strong public support for the idea of a GNU itself, which has held since before its inception. Previous polling has shown that both ANC and DA voters favour the two parties working together in government to make the country a success.

The Common Sense deputy editor Marius Roodt said, “There is a lot of common ground between South Africans of different political backgrounds and a very strong willingness to work together for the best interests of the country … this is despite the constant flow of negative messaging from social media and much of the legacy media”.

*The Social Research Foundation Q1 2026 Market Survey was commissioned by the Social Research Foundation supported by The Common Sense and conducted by Victory Research using a nationally representative telephonic CATI survey of registered voters (N=2,222), with metro samples upsized to over 500 respondents each in Johannesburg (n=503), Tshwane (n=510), and eThekwini (n=503). Fieldwork was conducted between 16 February 2026 and 6 March 2026 using a single-frame random digit dialling sampling design that draws from all possible South African mobile numbers, ensuring equal probability of selection and near-universal coverage given SIM penetration above 250%, more than 90% adult phone ownership, and mobile network coverage of 99.8% of the population. Respondents were screened to include registered voters only, and turnout modelling assigned each respondent a probability of voting based on likelihood indicators, with the primary model assuming turnout of 56.0%. Data were weighted to ensure the national sample reflects the demographic profile of the registered voter population across language, age, race, gender, location (urban/rural), education, and income, while metro samples were weighted to the demographic composition of voters in each metro. Results are reported at a 95% confidence level with a design effect (DEFF) of 1.762, producing margins of error of 2.1% nationally and 4.4% for each metro sample.