While various ANC protagonists argue about whether or not Cyril Ramaphosa won the election for them, , data shows that Ramaphoria was a critical factor. It is most obvious in the remarkable phenomenon of the split vote in which opposition voters gave their votes for the National Assembly to the ANC but voted against the party in their home province. These were DA and EFF voters who believe that even though the ANC does not express their political aspirations, it was nonetheless necessary to back Ramaphosa as he will do the best job of running the country.

In each of the nine provinces, the ANC’s vote on the national ballot was higher by between half and three percentage points than the vote on the provincial ballot. The effect is most strongly seen in Gauteng where the ANC got 52.2% on the national ballot but only 50,19 % on the ballot for the provincial legislature. Conversely, the DA did better on the provincial ballot with three percentage points more than on the nation...

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