South African voters are split over whether the United States would be justified in introducing targeted sanctions against corrupt leaders in South Africa. This is according to a Social Research Foundation survey of 1 004 registered voters conducted in February 2025.

One of the questions in that survey was: “The American government would be justified in introducing targeted sanctions against corrupt leaders in South Africa and against any individuals in South Africa who work against the interest of the United States. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?”

Amongst all registered voters the data split relatively evenly, 43.7% agreed somewhat or strongly and 47.6% disagreed somewhat or strongly, with a further 8.8% stating that they do not know or refused to answer the question.

While there are splits across several demographic lines, the most significant appeared to be across lines of education and income, with higher educated and higher income earners being more likely to agree that America would be justified in introducing targeted sanctions.