Those who trust President Cyril Ramaphosa were 77% more likely to vote ANC, according to University of Johannesburg research on voters' choices. This finding underscores why the ANC has Ramaphosa leading its 2024 election campaign in the party's push to retain its majority.

Trust in political leadership in elections has emerged as key to ballot choices - alongside party loyalty - according to the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Centre for Social Development in Africa's research brief, "Factors determining voters choice in South Africa's national general elections".

President Cyril Ramaphosa was a "significant factor in the support for the ANC" despite a view that he had failed to live up to promises, said Emeritus Professor Yolanda Sadie of the UJ Politics and International Relations Department at Tuesday's release of the research.

While reasons for this popularity - which increased by about 20 percentage points from 54% in 2019 - were not clear, Sadie said these could relate to Ramaphosa's comments on fighting corruption, admitting governance mistakes and committing to fixing those mistakes.

Like the "Ramaphosa factor", party loyalty as a factor in voter choice benefits the ANC as the party that brought freedom and democracy to South Africa. The only blip came in 2017 amid disgruntlement with the then presidency of Jacob Zuma.

"In this 2023 survey, respondents were 58% more likely to choose the incumbent party - the ANC - than an opposition party if they selected party loyalty as their reason for...