ANC supporters are seen at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Port Elizabeth on 16 April 2016. They were attending the party's election manifesto.
* For your full guide to the 2016 municipal elections, click here.
JOHANNESBURG - This week’s latest eNCA election poll – just three weeks before the 3 August voting - shows the Democratic Alliance (DA) continuing to pull ahead of the African National Congress (ANC) in Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg, but the gap between the two parties is narrowing in Tshwane.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the pattern in the fifth of the weekly polls continued, with the DA now at 42 percent and the ANC at 21 percent. With 16 percent undecided, this means that even in the unlikely event of the ANC winning all the undecided voters, the DA is still likely to be the biggest party.
The critical question is whether the DA can win half of these undecided voters, which will give them control of the city.
Click below to filter eNCA poll results according to age, race and income demographics in the three metros:
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) share of the vote in Nelson Mandela Bay also rose from last week’s 7 percent to 10 percent this week.
In Johannesburg, both the ANC and DA appeared to grow their votes by pulling support from the smaller parties. The ANC was, this week, at 31 percent (up form 30 percent last week) and the DA 36 percent (up from 33 percent last week).
With respondents who refused to answer or said they didn’t know who they would vote for at 16 percent, this vote could still go either way.
The EFF in Johannesburg moved down to 10 percent from 11 percent last week.
In Tshwane, the ANC appeared to partly recover from the effects of last week’s violence in the area.
Their support, having dropped last week to 23 percent, was back up to 26 percent this week, while the DA dropped from 42 percent to 39 percent and the EFF moved from 11 percent to 12 percent.
With 16 percent still undecided in Tshwane, this vote could still go either way on election day.
This week’s shifts may reflect the fact that campaigns are now moving into top gear.
The ANC’s President Jacob Zuma visited Tshwane, where the ANC percentage went up, and the DA’s Mmusi Maimane spent much of the week in Nelson Mandela Bay, where the DA share went up.
Week five of the eNCA polls asked respondents to rate which parties were the best to deal with important service delivery and social challenges.
The data reveals a perception of sentiment towards different political parties and is not a prediction of results ahead of the elections.
With the exception of Johannesburg, the DA was rated the highest as the best party to deal with service delivery and social challenges like electricity supply and reducing crime and drug abuse in Nelson Mandela Bay in Tshwane.
In Johannesburg the ANC was rated the highest in being able to deal with roads, electricity and water supply, build houses, deal with racism and refuse removal.
* Important points to consider about this poll:
A total of 2,500 panel members were recruited and every week 1,500 of them are contacted for a 5-minute telephonic interview. The results are representative of the opinions in each metropolitan area and are weighted and projected to reflect the views of the eligible voters in each area.
These results should be evaluated within the margin of error determined by sample size, response rate and sampling methodology used.
The margin of error for the results of the city of Johannesburg is between 1.2 percent and 2.8 percent; for the City of Tshwane it is between 1.6 percent and 3.7 percent and for Nelson Mandela Bay between 2.5 percent and 5.7 percent.?
Click on the links below for more results:
