The SA Citizens’ Survey (Sacs) on South Africans’ attitudes towards political leadership and the direction in which the country is moving found that 65% of its respondents were satisfied with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Sacs is conducted once a month by Citizen Surveys and is based on face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1 300 respondents on topics including politics, economics, social issues and food security.

The survey released this week found that 65% of respondents felt favourably disposed towards Ramaphosa in March, up from 57% in February.

Almost two thirds of respondents (64%) thought he was doing his job “well”.

Ramaphosa’s approval ratings, according to the survey, have climbed steadily from the low of 29% he scored in April and May of 2016.

Ramaphosa appeared most popular in Limpopo where he has a 75% approval rating, followed by the Free State (69%), North West (67%), and the Eastern Cape and Gauteng (65%).

He is least popular in KwaZulu-Natal (49%) and the Western Cape (43%).

The survey also tested respondents’ disposition towards opposition leaders Mmusi Maimane of the DA and Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters, who showed favourability ratings of 38% in March (up from February’s 32%) and a steady 27%, respectively.

Asked whether the country was moving in the right direction, 42% of respondents said that it was, up from 29% in February and a low of 18% in June last year.