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Special votes are for registered voters who are physically infirm or disabled, or who cannot get to their voting station on Election Day. Election officials also visit some of these voters at home on 2 and 3 November.

The Commission said ballots for special votes reached some areas of the Western Cape late, which it called an unforeseen delay. Michael Hendrickse is the Western Cape Provincial Electoral Officer.

The Commission said voters who miss the home visit are not disenfranchised. They can still vote at their voting station on 4 November 2026. It also said the first day created a solid basis for better performance on day two and on election day.Share

OR Tambo District Municipality has over 1 000 voting districts and over 1100 voting stations. Police said the district has limited police officials for that number of sites.

Ncatha said the three high-risk voting stations are linked to the number of officers to be deployed. He said a police chopper has been made available.

Ncatha explained how the district was categorised. He said: "The categorisation was done and concluded by our intelligence community."Share

The atlas also lists the DNA sequence variants that drive these changes. The researchers aim to explain how the human skeleton evolved, including the adaptations for walking upright. The work is peer-reviewed. The details given here come from a summary of the study, not the full paper, so the findings and methods need checking against the paper itself.Share

Mazibuko works in the coalitions programme at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). He also expects hung councils in parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State, the Northern Cape and the southern Eastern Cape.

Turnout in the 2021 Local Government Elections was 45.86%. Mazibuko says turnout has continued to decline. He said same-day voter registration is one reform the National Assembly could consider in future. He warned that online voting carries a risk of hacking and should be avoided.

Mazibuko said bad actors find WhatsApp, X and Facebook easier to infiltrate to spread false information. He said: "This is an issue the IEC is seized with".

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs proposes the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, 2026, known as the Coalition Bill. Mazibuko said the bill is at an early stage and needs more work.Share

The province has 5,028 voting stations. Of these, 4,988 received special vote applications. Masinga said the other 40 stations will not open for special votes.

The municipality of eThekwini has the most approved special votes, at 101,470. Newcastle has 16,307 and Msunduzi has 14,603.

Masinga said ballot boxes and a training module were stolen at Zambeni, Amahlongwa Community Hall. She also said members of the MK Party went to the Umzinto Town Hall voting station to ask about the distribution of election materials.

Masinga said a person at Umzinto Town Hall claimed to be a member of the Political Liaison Committee, but had not taken part in earlier committee meetings. She said late police escorts and a vehicle breakdown caused delays.Share

The IEC said 2.6-million people were expected to vote during special voting on Monday and Tuesday. It deployed 127,000 officials to oversee that voting.

IEC official Kgosietsile Tshoke said voters must check their voting station and bring an accepted ID. He also told voters to arrive on time and follow the Electoral Code of Conduct.

Voters can check their station details by SMS to 32810 at R1 per SMS, or by WhatsApp on 0600 88 0000. Parliament's Presiding Officers, Speaker Thoko Didiza and NCOP Chairperson Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, urged people to vote.

Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth asked employers to release workers so they can vote.Share

Morero cast his special vote in the local government elections and said he voted for the African National Congress (ANC). Over 2 million voters registered for special votes in the elections.

He said the ANC had done a lot of campaigning work in the last 18 months and that its support base remained strong. He said the last three weeks had been tough.

Asked about water and waste problems in Johannesburg, Morero said some systems in Soweto had recovered. He said this showed the interventions and work under way.Share

Lebeya retired as Hawks head in May 2025. Cachalia said his decision does not stop cabinet from exercising its mind. He said the decision needs a cabinet process and a parliamentary process to be complete.

Cachalia also defended announcing the appointment. He said the police service is criticised for being indecisive and for having too many acting appointments.

Mkhwanazi joined the South African Police Service as a student constable in 1993. He became KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner in December 2018. At a media briefing on 6 July 2025, he alleged that criminal syndicates had infiltrated law enforcement and that senior political and police figures had interfered in sensitive investigations.Share

Price said he expects the parties and people elected to lead municipalities to put the needs of citizens first. He named an improvement in service delivery as one of those needs. He also said he and his wife were excited to cast their votes.

Price also spoke about government and the constitution. He criticised the African National Congress (ANC) while he voted. He said: "I think the ANC has disappointed us a bit, but I hope we are going to be able to do a lot better".Share

Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Shiburi spoke at the IEC Results Operations Centre in Midrand. He also responded to concerns about the position of voting booths and the privacy of voters.

Shiburi said booths should stand in an "ATM position", so the voter's body hides the ballot paper from anyone behind them. He explained the idea this way: "You obscure the keypad, in this instance the ballot paper, with your body."

Shiburi said this placement is critical to protect the right to vote in secret. He said it also stops people from inducing voters to make a mark, take a picture or hand over a ballot in exchange for something.Share

The strike took place on 2 November, on the eve of the US midterm elections. Washington said the move was defensive.

President Donald Trump and the Republicans have found it hard to defend the war against Iran in their campaigns. Reports say the war is unpopular.Share

Nkaro Mateta, the IEC's Provincial Electoral Officer in Limpopo, spoke about the 12 stations. They include one at Ga-Chokoe outside Mokopane. He said voter intimidation was reported at Ga-Chokoe during the last voter registration period.

Mateta said the intimidation meant some residents did not register or apply for special votes. He said some voters were threatened during the registration weekend. For two days, he said, no one came to check details, register or re-register.

Mateta spoke about election day, which is on Wednesday. He said: "We are hopeful that perhaps on election day, which is on Wednesday, this will be the last opportunity for them to decide who will lead their areas".Share

The study is peer-reviewed and appears in the journal Nature. The team found almost no stone tools around ancient lakes, which led to the idea that water alone did not decide where people lived. This may matter for how researchers read dispersal routes, including those out of Africa. The survey was a single 35-day transect in 2023, so the conclusion rests on missing evidence plus modelling.Share

Ithuba Lottery and Ringeta Consortium brought the review. The court declared the licence agreement invalid but suspended that declaration for two consecutive six-month periods. It told Tau to reconsider the award without the report of the ministerial committee.

The court found that Tau acted unfairly in procedure and in substance. It said he secretly appointed a separate ministerial committee to re-evaluate the bids outside the Request for Proposals process. One report said the National Lotteries Commission must pay costs.

Sizekhaya said the decision concerned a technical issue in the award process. It said the court made no adverse findings against it on any of the grounds Ithuba and Ringeta raised. The company said tickets are still on sale, draws will go ahead and prizes will be paid.

Sizekhaya said the court suspended its order to protect the public interest, because good causes depend on the lottery running without interruption.Share

Terry Tselane, a former IEC commissioner and vice chairperson, explained why the elections cost so much. He said the technology used is not cheap and needs a lot of resources.

Tselane said the voting machine now in use cost a lot of money. He said the fleet of machines must also be maintained.

He recalled that opening voting stations for a registration weekend a few years back cost about R360 million. He said that sum covered stations, infrastructure, electoral staff and stipends.Share

The Money & Me survey says 65% of respondents find every month financially difficult, up from 61% last year. It found 43% need to borrow money before month-end. Also, 83% could not pay an unexpected R10,000 expense from savings.

The survey says 51% of respondents spend more than 40% of take-home pay on debt repayments, compared with 38% in 2025. About 37% do not know the interest rate on their biggest loan. Also, 69% shopped based on special offers.

Nicholson is head of customer experience at JustMoney. She said spending R1,000 on an item you would not otherwise buy does not save you R1,000. She said store accounts, credit facilities and buy-now-pay-later offers can make purchases look affordable while adding to monthly commitments.

Nicholson said countdown clocks and messages that only a few items remain create urgency and push shoppers into quick decisions. Her advice: "If a deal doesn’t match your budget, walk away." Under the Consumer Protection Act, consumers can generally return defective or unsafe goods within six months of delivery.Share

The investigation found that VAST AI never rented out anything and that its list of verified withdrawals was fake. The finding came from an analysis of the platform's code. The scheme's pitch promised to turn R50 000 into R350 000 in two days.

Products cost from R100 for two days to R40 000 for 400 days. At the top VIP10 level, the scheme promised a salary of R300 000 a month. VAST's Telegram channel had 16 400 subscribers.

The operators told members they faced a financial audit. They said the "National Treasury of South Africa" told them to withhold funds for Personal Income Tax. Quentin Peason, named as a manager of a WhatsApp group called AI Working Group, blamed a compliance review and delays in cross-border settlement. He promised 10 times compensation.

A journalist who investigated the scheme said the payment gateway appears to be Chinese-operated and illicit. The journalist also said the platform looks like a reusable system built in Chinese for many countries. It may be run by a syndicate like Morita Forestry, an earlier scheme that used similar tactics.Share

Magistrate Peter Manthata handed down the judgment on Monday. The court found David and Froliana Joseph guilty of conspiracy to commit housebreaking with intent to steal, and of theft of the dollars. David was also found guilty of housebreaking and money laundering.

David calls himself a "diamond boy". The court accepted that he used the money to buy luxury vehicles. They were a VW Golf R7, a BMW M5, two Mercedes-Benz G63Ses and a Porsche Carrera.

The cash was stolen in February 2020 from the Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo.Share

Seven men are on trial for the murder of rapper Kiernan "AKA" Forbes. The state alleges the Mercedes-Benz was the getaway car after the February 2023 shooting outside Wish restaurant. Dlamini also said she collected a piece of clothing.

The defence asked Dlamini whether she knew that many cars in the Morningside area looked the same. It suggested the team had collected evidence from the wrong car.

The state also alleges that accused Mziwelithini Gwabeni leased a grey VW Polo and a Hyundai Grand i10 from Sonwabile Bani. It says spotters used the cars to track AKA's movements. Cross-examination of tracker expert Carel Rothmann did not go ahead on Monday because the defence was not ready.Share

The team, led by Paul Burke of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, used CT scans to re-examine a skull first described in 1927. They found differences from Tomistoma, including raised rims around the eye sockets. Zanaty says the work may help explain how gavials once lived across the globe, while only two endangered species survive. This account is a first-person piece by the researchers, not the peer-reviewed paper.Share

Discovery Insure CEO Robert Attwell discussed the findings on The Money Show. He said long-distance trips are the first to go. Data showed a 30% decline in long-distance trips during the winter months.

Small purchases are now more common. Transactions of less than 20 litres make up 36% of fuel purchases, up from 25% in 2025.

Average monthly fuel spending was approximately R1,750 at the start of 2025. By mid-2026 it was between R2,500 and R2,700.

Attwell said everyday commuting and school runs stay essential, which makes it hard to cut transport costs. He also said: "Really, people are just trying to save a few hundred rand, and we see this through the smaller fuel purchases."Share

Johannesburg Water expects storage to reach about 50% by the end of the week. Lesufi said the water losses in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane came from El Niño and related factors, as he was told. He said the deployment of the water and sanitation deputy minister and technical teams helped stabilise the system.

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero said Crown Gardens, Berea and Kensington had seen improvements. He said Kensington was the worst hit and the city had restored it. Morero said the city bought 20 tankers in 2025 and 16 more in a second phase.

Morero said replacing ageing water infrastructure would cost R13bn. He said the investment would save the city about R300m in its water business. Reports said interventions could cut water losses by at least 10% in the short term.

Henk Boshoff, chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, said municipalities should stop spending hundreds of millions of rand on water tankers. He said service providers and municipal officials are sabotaging infrastructure. WaterCAN executive manager Ferrial Adam said Johannesburg Water and the province should have seen the crisis coming.Share

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media that indirect talks with Washington were taking place through mediators. He said consultations were very intensive. US Vice President JD Vance said the US had made some progress and would see if it could make more.

A senior Iranian official said Tehran was ready to open the strait within two days if Washington agreed to its list of demands. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Iran wanted a settlement as soon as possible.

Hours later, a Wall Street Journal report said the US had carried out a string of limited, secret strikes on Iran in recent weeks. Iranian state media reported five explosions on Qeshm island. The report weakened the diplomatic overtures.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned that any act of aggression would meet a response that was powerful, immediate and comprehensive. Trump said he might still have to give Iran "the hammer" at some point. He said he also had to deal with one or two targets, including Pickaxe mountain, a suspected nuclear site that Tehran denies is one.Share

Helen Zille, the DA candidate for Johannesburg, defended her party's national coalition with the ANC. She said the alternative is the "doomsday option". Bongani Baloyi of the MK Party ruled out working with the DA or the FF Plus.

Herman Mashaba, the ActionSA candidate for Johannesburg, said he fired more than 900 people for incompetence and corruption. He said: "I’m not in this job to make friends." Willie Spies, the FF Plus candidate for Tshwane, said his party is building "a new majority".

In Ekurhuleni, ANC candidate Jongizizwe Dlabathi said the metro "is not a crime scene". He said R840 million of the R2 billion lost through under-collected electricity has been recovered. EFF candidate Nthabiseng Tshivhenga said vetting found more than 200 metro police officers with criminal records.Share

Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo told a media briefing on Monday evening that all logistical difficulties were resolved during the day. He described the count of 780,000 as conservative. The commission said 217 voting stations in the City of Cape Town had delays.

The commission expects 2.6 million voters to cast special votes on Monday and Tuesday. Mamabolo said Tuesday would be much improved and Wednesday would be better still. He also offered an apology to affected voters.

Ballot papers were late after about 28 million had to be reprinted in 107 municipalities. The reprint followed a Constitutional Court ruling of 15 October that ordered 181 ANC candidates reinstated, with 32 other parties given the same relief. About 29 million South Africans are registered to vote in the municipal polls.

Democratic Alliance (DA) voters have written to the commission to complain about the delays, reports said. DA federal council chair Ashor Sarupen said the commission should convene an urgent meeting of the party liaison committee on the failures that caused the delay.Share

Masinga said 148 voting stations are tents. In some informal settlements, no permanent building is available. She said: "there is absolutely no permanent structure we can use as a voting station".

Masinga said temporary service providers are on standby. They will put the tents up again if anything happens to them. She spoke at the briefing on Monday.Share

The team found an electron-transfer effect in which only redox probes at the cell-electrode interface produce measurable current. They used it to build an electrochemical sensor. On 55 patient samples, the sensor showed 96% specificity and 87% sensitivity. The sample is small, and the figures are early and not independently validated. The work does not say whether the test will be available in South Africa.Share

Greer said the US is concerned by barriers to US trade and investment, corruption, and threats to US national security and foreign policy interests in South Africa. The office of the US trade representative also accused South Africa of high tariffs on US poultry, wine and spirits, and of unjustified animal health limits on US pork.

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau said Agoa remains important but is not the whole economic relationship with the US. He said government will speed up the diversification of export markets to protect jobs. Tau also said the US is raising new issues that were not part of talks that began in 2025.

Cosatu said thousands of agricultural and manufacturing jobs are at risk. The Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa called the exclusion a blow to the industry. Its chief executive, Boitshoko Ntshabele, said the US consumer will lose too.

Reports put Agoa goods at about 10% of South Africa's exports to the US in 2025. Tau said 89% of South African exports entered the US under ordinary World Trade Organisation terms that year.Share