November 2026

Evelyn Mdlalose, 84, voted at Boitshepo Secondary School. She said the area has no clean water, no roads and no electricity. She hopes the party she voted for will deliver these services.

Piet Kekana, 80, said crime is his priority. He said he wants peace and a candidate who will fight crime, which he described as severe in the area.

Linah Kwinaka, 81, said she voted for a candidate who could address the water crisis. Elderly residents in general said they hope the next administration will solve the area's long-standing service problems.

Water is a sore point in Hammanskraal. More than 30 people died in a cholera outbreak linked to contaminated water supply in May 2023.Share

The authors argue that these carbonates are an overlooked carbon sink. They also suggest the carbonates could be a route for carbon to move into the deep Earth. The work links seabed earthquakes to the way carbon is locked away on the ocean floor. The carbon sink claim is the authors' own view, and it has not been independently checked.Share

A US official said American forces carried out defensive strikes on Iran's Oeshm island overnight. The official said the strikes hit surface-to-air missiles used against US assets. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they downed one US MQ-9 drone and two Lucas drones near the Strait of Hormuz.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the US response to Iran's demands was not convincing. He wrote on X that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen only if Iran's seven conditions were met. The senior official said Tehran would not accept excessive US demands, and that nuclear talks could start only after Iran's conditions were met. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran will not submit.

Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry, said intensive joint regional efforts were under way to avoid escalation. He said that as a mediator, Qatar cannot lose hope. A draft deal was discussed over eight days, and feedback from Washington and Tehran on the mediators' proposals was expected within 36 hours.

US President Donald Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday that he did not want to kill many people, but would if he had to. Kayhan newspaper said US facilities in Britain, Italy, Greece, Romania, Albania and Cyprus could be targeted if war resumed.Share

More than 29 million voters are on the voters' roll. The Electoral Commission said it is preparing for 100% turnout. Its chief executive, Sy Mamabolo, said special voting went smoothly the day before. He said the only significant problem was late delivery of ballot papers in Cape Town.

Several party leaders, including DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis and Good Party leader Patricia De Lille, planned to vote in Cape Town in the morning. Hill-Lewis is also the DA candidate for Cape Town mayor.

Analysts expect many councils to be hung. The Mapungubwe Coalition Barometer expects about half of the 257 municipalities to be hung. Analyst Tessa Dooms said smaller parties and independents may hold the balance of power. She also said trust in politicians is low.

Pre-election polls suggest no party will win a majority in any of the three Gauteng metros. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has said the party must review its place with the DA in the national unity government. An analysis said DA leaders may drive a harder bargain in coming talks.Share

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus, both partners in the Government of National Unity, blamed the ANC for the decision. DA MP Ryan Smith said the exclusion was avoidable and unnecessary. He blamed International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola and called him diplomatically inept.

Freedom Front Plus leader Corne Mulder said the US demands on South Africa were not unreasonable. He said Lamola refused to meet US requirements for normalising relations. The DA and the Freedom Front Plus predicted thousands of job losses and industry closures.

The government said South Africa will suffer losses because it must now pay tariffs on exports that were exempt from duties. The two parties urged voters to turn against the ANC in the ballot on Wednesday.

Former US diplomat Brooks Spector said the US midterm elections are unlikely to change the decision. He said the US president and his administration hold the power to decide which countries are eligible. He added that South Africa can still make its case to be included again.Share

Voters elect municipal representatives for the next five years. The Electoral Commission says about 16.1 million registered voters are women and 13 million are men.

Gauteng has the most registered voters, with 6.4 million, or 23.1% of the total. KwaZulu-Natal has 6 million, the Eastern Cape 3.6 million and the Western Cape 3.4 million.

Mpumalanga Premier Mandla Ndlovu voted at the Thulamahashe Civic Centre. He urged voters to hold their councillors to account and said the province would pay special attention to water in Mbombela. He said plans for a new dam in the City of Mbombela and the Loskop Bulk Water Supply Project are under way.

In Pietermaritzburg, voter Nondumiso Nzuza said the new councils must create jobs and help young people, as many graduates are unemployed. Voter Ntombi Kofane said leaders must enforce municipal by-laws, including those on underage drinking.Share

Fiddler AI makes software that lets companies observe how AI agents behave. Dreadnode helps companies automate the testing of their AI security.

CrowdStrike said the price of nearly $500 million covers both startups together.Share

Fhumalini Thovhagale, the IEC Municipal Electoral Officer in Bushbuckridge, said the parties raised concerns about trust in the process. She said they told the IEC they wanted to guard the ballots.

Thovhagale said parties may guard outside the storage facilities. They must stay out of the warehouse area where the ballots are kept.

The parties claim that ballot boxes might be tampered with at the storage facilities. The IEC did not confirm any tampering.Share

Google announced the option for schools to disable its AI tools. The company said schools that choose to restrict AI entirely will not be able to use Search.

The reason is that AI features are now built into Search. A school cannot block the AI part and keep the rest of the search engine.Share

Lord David Cameron, a former prime minister, now takes a leading role at Conservative Party events. He also reaches out to donors for the party.

Cameron led the Conservatives for almost five years in opposition. Kemi Badenoch is the current party leader.Share

Reports said the new placements could help Reddit earn more revenue from existing users. The test comes as Google's AI search changes how people find Reddit content.

Reddit has not been reported to have said how long the test will run or how many users will see the ads.Share

The model counts water for making hydrogen, treating supplies and cooling equipment. It puts use at 35 to 170 litres per kilogram of hydrogen, against the industry claim of about nine litres. The authors say desalination would release salty, chemical-laden wastewater that could harm marine life, and that old groundwater could run out. They write about Morocco, Algeria and Egypt, which want to supply Europe. This is a modelling study, so its results depend on its assumptions.Share

The $6.3B figure is described as a record for a heist. Reports did not say here who carried out the theft.

The experts' warnings concerned North Korea's long-running hacking campaigns. They said the state's attacks were persistent and patient.Share

Sibiya's legal team argues that the magistrate misdirected herself, despite the evidence the defence presented. The appeal is now before the High Court in Johannesburg.

The Randburg Magistrates' Court found that Sibiya failed to show exceptional circumstances that would justify his release.Share

Democrats also flipped Senate seats in Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio. Paxton was Trump's handpicked Republican candidate in Texas. Jon Ossoff held his Democratic seat in Georgia, and Abdul El-Sayed was fighting to keep the party's hold on a seat in Michigan.

Democrats have flipped eight House seats so far. Analysts began to predict a big Democratic victory in the House. Kansas last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1932.

Polls pointed to public anger over Trump's handling of the economy after the war in Iran. They said fuel prices rose sharply and the cost of living went up. Columnist Ed Luce wrote that Trump's heavy-handed input backfired in several midterm races.Share

Wednesday is a public holiday. Some voters in the queue complained that 7am is a late start for voting.

Madumetja Mothabele, a 61-year-old voter, said residents want service delivery and electricity, and that rent is very expensive. Rejoice Makgoro, a state pensioner, said she gets an old age grant of R2,400 a month. She said food is expensive and the grant is too small for her food and rent, and she wants it raised to at least R3,000.Share

The researchers suggest that losing these Bglap3 neurons with age may contribute to the decline in spatial memory. The work is peer-reviewed. It gives scientists a specific cell type to study further. The findings come from mice, and the link to memory decline is a suggestion, not proof. The work is far from applying to people.Share

Experts expect the fight for control of councils to end in another round of coalition talks. They project more hung councils, where no party wins an outright majority.

Two other stories made news on the same day. Nomthandazo Nama, a KwaZulu-Natal flood victim, moved into a new home in the Cornubia housing development. She said she struggled with leaks and a crumbling floor in less than five months, and that the contractors did not install a gutter.

Muzi Ngongoma, a disabled flood victim, was allocated a double-storey home in Cornubia. Separately, the high court in Pretoria voided the award of the National Lottery licence to Sizekhaya Holdings. The court sent the matter back to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau, and Ithuba welcomed the ruling.Share

President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to vote at Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg. Deputy President Paul Mashatile is due to vote at St Johannes Lutheran Church in Kelvin, Johannesburg. The Presidency announced the plans of both leaders.

IEC Chairperson Mosotho Moepya and his team promised credible, free and fair elections.Share

Persistent rain stopped play in Durban on Tuesday, so the match never started. The Dolphins are seventh on the log, four points behind the Cobras.

The Cobras hold the fourth and final semifinal place in the YesPlay Pro20 Cup. Boland are third on the log.Share

The team, including Logan, Jon and Kendra, annotated more than 70,000 birdsong syllables from public recordings. Both birds and humans kept pitch changes small between neighbouring syllables and used regular rhythms. Birds that learn their songs did not differ clearly from those that do not. The authors say they need more studies to explain the patterns. Their idea is that breathing and vocal muscles may shape them.Share

The MK Party has 15% support among registered voters aged 18 to 24, and the DA has 13%. Another 9% of these voters said they will not vote. The findings come from the Ipsos Pulse of the People study, released ahead of the local government elections.

Ipsos political analyst Mari Harris said young South Africans are sending a clear message to parties. She said many of them do not feel represented and are sceptical of politicians. She also said youth unemployment gets too little attention, which keeps registration lower than among older voters.

Statistics from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) show about 693,000 people aged 15 to 19 are registered to vote. About 5 million registered voters are aged 20 to 29. Councillor candidates aged 18 to 39 make up 32% of the total, and the IEC said young people are still not adequately represented on party lists.Share

NATJOINTS briefed the media in Pretoria. Co-chairperson Tebello Mosikili, who is also Deputy National Police Commissioner, said police recorded the 21 case dockets since Monday. The incidents also include destruction of election material and impersonating officials of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Two of the six suspects were arrested for impersonating an IEC official at Ingcobo in the Eastern Cape. The fact sheet also lists Mmametlake in Mpumalanga and Pienaar and Christiana in North West as places linked to incidents.

NATJOINTS said law enforcement agencies remain on high alert. It said they will act against anyone who tries to interfere with the electoral process.

SANDF Brigadier-General Martin Gopane said the military does not foresee problems that would need soldiers. He said the defence force remains on standby and is ready to deploy if the need arises.Share

The JSE All Share index closed at 109,275 points on Tuesday, down 0.2%. The Top 40 index fell to 101,192, down 0.2%.

The rand ended at R16.60 to the US dollar, stronger than R16.69 the day before. Gold was at $3,945 an ounce, down 0.6%. Brent crude was at $103.22 a barrel, down 1.5%.Share

Aubrey Ledwaba lodged the complaint in February 2026, when he was Gauteng acting judge president. The Judicial Conduct Committee produced the report that the commission considered.

The Hawks arrested Phahlane and three co-accused in November 2025. The Hawks allege she accepted about R2m in cash and benefits to influence the outcome of a church succession case. The case involved the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

Phahlane denies criminal conduct. Her bail affidavit said she intends to plead not guilty.

The National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit secured a preservation order over a luxury property in Hartbeespoort, worth about R6m. The authority said the property was bought partly with proceeds of unlawful activities, including corruption and money laundering.Share

Godongwana gave the reply to DA MP Andrew Gordon Bateman. He said the dismissal followed findings of serious procurement irregularities and misconduct. These arose from several forensic investigations that the Treasury started.

Madiehe's disciplinary hearing began on 2 February. She was found guilty on 24 August. The chair pronounced the sanction of dismissal on 7 September, and the dismissal letter was issued on 8 September.

Godongwana said the dismissal will be contested at the bargaining council and the CCMA. He said the department put internal disciplinary proceedings first and is now finalising referral of the matters to law enforcement authorities. In his view, letting the disciplinary process gain traction helped to consolidate the evidence.

Job Stadi Mngomezulu, the deputy director-general for corporate services, is the acting CEO.Share

The pair used deep learning to find halicin in 2020, from a model trained on 2,500 molecules. It killed drug-resistant bacteria in tests. In 2023 they found abaucin, which targets one species, A. baumannii. Barzilay says drug discovery is still at an early stage and AI can automate only parts of the process. MIT, the winners' own institution, announced the award.Share

At the Bud Mbelle voting station in Ward 63, 38 voters registered for special votes through home visits. The station expects 101 voters to cast ballots.

Elsie Chabane, 91, voted from her home in Ward 63. She said she loves President Cyril Ramaphosa and hopes the ANC will win. She said life has been better since 1994 and that pensioners earn because of Ramaphosa.

Chabane said she gets more than R2,000 a month as an old age grant. She also said Ramaphosa gives unemployed youth R370. Those are her claims.

Lesego Bohola, a wheelchair user in Ward 68, first voted in 1994. She said she wants a house and has lost hope of ever owning one.Share

Tau said the delegation is looking at Silicon Valley as it works to carry out South Africa's digitalisation strategy. He said the country continues to work on developing its tech industry.

The minister said the trip will include business-to-business engagement and learning. He said it will also influence future investment decisions in the sector.Share