Polling by the Social Research Foundation places the Democratic Alliance ahead of the movement in Gauteng, with 37% support among registered voters against 31%. ActionSA registered 7% and the Economic Freedom Fighters 5%.

The foundation cautions that the Gauteng sample is smaller than its national sample and that the provincial margin of error is correspondingly higher, and that the figures should be read as a rough indication of support levels rather than a precise forecast.

The province has chosen to publish rather than dispute the number. The Provincial Task Team has instructed every region to run a sustained door-to-door programme through to voting day, with each branch committing to a weekly household target and logging the issues raised.

The instruction is that volunteers listen first and promise nothing that the movement cannot deliver. Where a household raises a specific fault — a leak, a dark street, an uncollected bin — the volunteer records the reference and returns to that household with an answer.

"We will not talk our way back into confidence," the Campaigns Sub-committee said. "We will only work our way back."