November 2026

Ramaphosa said South Africa's suspension from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) from January is a negative. The announcement of the suspension came on Monday. He said the country was sad to be removed, but trade relations with the US continue.

He said the focus should now be on negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US.

Reports of US President Donald Trump's statements say he has targeted South Africa largely over what he calls the persecution of white people. South Africa says this claim is a false narrative spread by fringe groups.Share

IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the station was used for ballot validation in ward 2 of eThekwini. He spoke at a media briefing on Wednesday. A case has been opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Sheburi also gave figures for KwaZulu-Natal. The province has 5,028 voting stations and 6,022,350 registered voters. The IEC said opening was delayed at 50 stations in Ndwedwe because of logistical problems, and at 3 stations in Umzumbe because roads were inaccessible.

By the close of special voting on Tuesday, 234,297 of 362,878 approved special voters in the province had cast ballots. The IEC put turnout at 65%. Of these votes, 110,767 were cast through home visits and 123,530 at voting stations.Share

Ramaphosa said the Democrats had taken control of the Senate and the House, and that the people of America had spoken. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Americans voted against policies that impoverish people, and against hatred, sexism and climate denial.

Bernd Lange, head of the European parliament's international trade committee, called the result a crushing blow to US President Donald Trump and his policies. Ines Schwerdtner, joint leader of Germany's Left Party, called it a defeat for the global right. Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer said Americans had said no to war.

Some leaders expected a hard period for the US government. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the rest of Trump's term would be about impeachment, vetoes and paralysis. Belgian defence minister Theo Francken said governing the US would be almost impossible in the coming years.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany's far-right AFD, said Trump had broken a promise to avoid an interventionist foreign policy. French National Rally president Jordan Bardella said US intervention regarding Iran would carry heavy consequences for the US and European economies. One report said the result could affect global trade, security and energy prices.Share

The party said Zuma acknowledged the movement's work on undocumented foreigners. He also raised concern about how immigration laws are enforced. The party said March and March recognised its contribution to the issue.

The party said unemployment, border security, pressure on public services and the protection of local economic opportunities need firm and responsible action from the government. Spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu said the mutual recognition shows the value of dialogue between political groups and community movements.

The Durban high court has ordered March and March to suspend demonstrations until November 6. The South African Police Service filed an urgent application for the order. Future protests must take place between 9am and 3-4pm.Share

IEC Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Shiburi said a case was opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS). He said the affected staff were relieved of their duties. Reports said the items were taken from Myameni Secondary School, near Botha's Hill, on the night before election day.

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Electoral Officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said the IEC issued a new stamp for election day. She said the stolen stamp was valid only for that day, and staff must check the stamp code when counting starts. She said anyone who tried to bring the stolen ballots back would use the wrong date.

Masinga also said parties may not escort IEC officials who move ballot papers to storage. Only SAPS officers may do so. Shiburi said only candidates and party agents may not wear party regalia inside voting stations.

The IEC said severe weather was imminent in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands in the afternoon. It urged voters to cast their ballots early. SAPS lists 165 high-risk voting stations in the province, 124 of them in eThekwini.Share

The IEC said the alleged attempts to enter its warehouses happened in Richmond, Umkhambathini and Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal. IEC provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said police intervened and the crowd dispersed.

Deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said people also tried to impersonate IEC officials at a police station in Ngcobo, Eastern Cape. He said they tried to collect election material. He said the IEC is taking legal steps to hold the people and political parties involved to account.

Of the special votes, 917,000 were cast at voting station sites and 421,000 through home visits. Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the 1.3 million figure was given conservatively. He spoke at the Results Operations Centre in Midrand and said the IEC was ready to open voting stations at 7:00am on voting day.Share

The company is state-owned and is based in Qatar. Its push for new sources follows the conflict in the Middle East, which limits what Qatar can export.

The reports give no figures for the planned purchases.Share

IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the longest universal ballot template can hold 80 candidates. He said it works very well where there are more than 76 candidates, because the ballot then follows the template sequence. He said shorter double-column ballots need electoral staff to help braille-literate voters with numbering and sequence, so that votes are not miscast.

Sheburi also spoke about party regalia. He said voters may come to a voting station in any regalia they choose. He said a voter who only marks a ballot and then leaves is allowed to do so.

Sheburi thanked the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure for helping to create a good environment for the elections. He said the Department of Home Affairs opened its offices to citizens who lost their identity documents. He also thanked Eskom for dealing with electricity problems at voting stations.

Sheburi called on all South Africans who had not yet voted to go and cast their ballots.Share

Ramaphosa spoke to the media after he voted. He said he was confident the ANC would come out on top in the local government elections. Over 29 million South Africans registered to vote in the seventh democratic local elections.

He also spoke about the strike in Johannesburg. One report said it ended when the City of Joburg agreed to pay workers R10 billion over two years.

On water supply, Ramaphosa said Rand Water had a problem delivering water to various reservoirs. He said the utility was now pumping more water into them.

Ramaphosa also commented on the US midterm elections. He said the Democrats had taken control of the Senate and the House. He said the result would bring a new era in world relations.Share

Ramaphosa voted with First Lady Tshepo Motsepe. He said the turnout showed democracy in action and reflected the aspirations of the Freedom Charter. He urged registered voters who had not yet voted to go out and vote.

The president said government is determined to rebuild local government. He said newly elected councillors, from all parties, would be more committed to serving communities. He also said new councils would be inaugurated in the coming days, opening a new chapter for local government.

Ramaphosa said it was the first time in years that a local government election drew so many parties and so many people who wanted to represent others.

Other leaders also voted, including former president Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President Paul Mashatile and former president Kgalema Motlanthe. DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille, Action SA leader Herman Mashaba and eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba voted too. Kingsol Chabalala, the DA mayoral candidate in Emfuleni, said protecting municipal finances would be a priority, with a cash flow assessment in the first 100 days.Share

Ntshavheni said only South Africans with South African identity documents can vote. She said foreign nationals live in the country on permits and visas and are not eligible. She urged people who lost their IDs to get temporary identification documents from Home Affairs offices.

She also urged voters to cast their ballots early and said it would be best if everyone voted by 9pm without an extension of hours. She said special votes on Monday and Tuesday went well, with a few incidents that Natjoints could manage. She told parties to show tolerance.

Voting began at 7am, and stations and Home Affairs offices close at 9pm. More than 29 million registered voters can vote at nearly 24,000 voting stations. Some voters in Joubert Park waited for hours and were then told to vote at other stations.

Deputy government spokesperson William Baloyi warned that it is prohibited for a voter to photograph a marked ballot paper.Share

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the package would double payouts for victims under compulsory passenger insurance. He said it would also advance compensation payments and improve cover for temporary incapacity. He spoke on Monday at a forum in Barcelona, where he said the government wanted to win back public trust in high-speed rail as fast as it could.

Puente said a computer failure knocked out the signalling system. He called the control centre's later order for the train to resume its journey inexplicable. Investigators estimate the impact speed at 160km/h to 200km/h.

Reports citing unidentified sources said the government is considering a 40km/h limit when drivers must rely on sight if signals fail. It may also hire more staff and improve conditions in rail control centres. Several railworkers' unions rejected blaming human error before the investigation ends.

A crash on the same line in January killed 46 people. Spain holds an election on 29 November.Share

Thousands of people rallied in Prague, including on Wenceslas Square, and in other Czech cities. The coalition also wants to cancel the monthly household broadcasting fee of 205 crowns ($9.43). The bill passed a preliminary vote last month and awaits more debate in parliament.

Jan Molacek, a Czech TV reporter and strike committee member, said the plan would give the coalition tools to influence the content of both public media. Critics said it would cut the link between the media and paying viewers and expose funding to political pressure. Opposition parties compared the changes to reforms in Hungary under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Monday that the government was keeping a promise to ease the financial burden on the public. He denied that the government wants to control public media or that democracy is at stake.Share

Trump spoke on Tuesday in an interview with Fox News. He said some Democrats and left-wing politicians use US financial support to Israel as a talking point against Republicans. He said the US cannot allow that to continue. Netanyahu's office had not commented.

The US gives Israel $3.8bn a year in military aid under a memorandum of understanding that nears expiry in 2028. Netanyahu said in a May interview that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade.

A Quinnipiac University poll in June found that 48% of voters believe the US is too supportive of Israel. Among Democrats the figure was 66%. When the question was first asked in 2017, the figures were 16% for voters and 20% for Democrats.Share

Critics say the report was littered with false citations. They also say it credited research to the wrong authors. The critics were not named.

The claims are accusations, and the fact sheet gives no response from Accenture.Share

The agency said maternal deaths are rising. Clashes between the Saudi-backed government and the Houthi movement have isolated the city, and fighting stops supplies from entering and civilians from leaving. About 147,000 women and girls of childbearing age are cut off from essential healthcare services.

UNFPA Yemen representative Francesco Galtieri said insecurity, shelling and high fuel prices stop many women and medical staff from reaching the main maternal care hospital. He warned that the Yemeni-Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital could shut if officials do not ease access restrictions within days. Daily deliveries there have fallen to around 5 from 10 before the fighting.

Only 5 of 27 emergency maternal and neonatal health facilities in and around Taiz still work, and only in part. The agency expects about 1,500 obstetric emergencies among 6,400 displaced pregnant women. Galtieri also said pregnant women are living on little more than tea, bread or rice.

The latest fighting has displaced 300,000 people across Yemen. The UN World Food Programme said more than 800,000 people in Taiz and nearby areas have had no food assistance since early October.Share

Cape Town has 2,158,976 registered voters and eThekwini has 2,032,565. Ekurhuleni has 1,711,998 and the City of Tshwane has 1,684,463.

The three smaller metros have far fewer voters. Nelson Mandela Bay has 636,660, Buffalo City has 458,695 and Mangaung has 447,397.Share

Modlin airport in Poland closed for a short time while officers searched a LOT flight. A Wizz Air flight from London to Sofia diverted to Budapest after a bomb threat, the Hungarian defence minister, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, said.

Bulgaria's interior ministry secretary-general, Lyubomir Nikolov, said a threat came by email for a plane flying from Israel to Sofia. This was according to the BTA news agency.

Officials said the Murcia airport report, about a Ryanair flight from Manchester, proved to be a hoax.Share

Novo Nordisk now expects 2026 adjusted sales and adjusted operating profit to move between a 2% rise and a 2% fall at constant exchange rates. Its earlier forecast was a fall of 0% to 6%. The company said higher expectations for GLP-1 sales in the US and international markets drove the change.

US sales of the pill were 4.18-billion Danish crowns, and international sales were 1.22-billion. About 3.6-million prescriptions were filled in the US in the quarter, and more than 8-million since launch. Adjusted sales were 79.20-billion crowns, against 73.22-billion expected. Adjusted operating profit was 31.72-billion crowns, against 28.39-billion projected by analysts.

Sales of injectable Wegovy in the US fell 13% at constant exchange rates, but combined US Wegovy sales rose 21%. Chief executive Mike Doustdar said growth was led by the obesity portfolio. Analysts said the pill is the company's main route back to growth.Share

A Greek container ship was sunk by naval drones in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone last week. Ambrey said 74 vessels were struck in the previous half-year. In the third quarter, Ukraine carried out 137 attacks on ships and Russia carried out 92. In October, Russia hit 38 ships and Ukraine struck five.

Romania's government accused Russia of systematic strikes on civilian ships. Bulgaria did not blame Russia but said some attacks seem to benefit it. Ambrey said a naval drone seen on video of the last strike looked like a Russian type.

Sidharth Kaushal, a senior fellow at the RUSI think tank, called the attacks an escalation. Iulia Joja of the Middle East Institute said Russia is testing red lines. A Nato official said the attacks aim to dissuade allies from supporting Ukraine, and that Nato's duty to defend all members is firm. Russia says European governments escalate the war with military aid.

Russian grain exports through the two seas fell to 300,000 tonnes in September, from 4.74 million tonnes a year earlier. Ukraine's port grain exports were 810,000 tonnes, against 2.1 million tonnes. Naval analyst Andriy Ryzhenko said cutting grain volumes is Russia's main goal, with testing Nato second. Nato has committed $40bn (R666.4bn) to counter-drone capabilities over five years.Share

Police from Bloemspruit responded to the call about a shooting. They found the bodies of a 35-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl. Police said the man was inside the house and the woman was in the lounge. The girl was in a bed.

The shooting happened in Bloemfontein on the morning of voting day. Experts from the local Criminal Record Centre processed the scene.Share

The dollar index fell 0.6% to 101.27, its lowest level in a month. The euro rose 0.6% to $1.1258, and sterling gained 0.3% to $1.3458. The 10-year US Treasury yield dropped by nearly 5 basis points to 4.915%.

Gold rose 2.2% to $4,017 per ounce in early trading. Platinum rose 2.9% to $1,460. Oil edged down to $102.9 a barrel. Reports said Democrats had flipped six Republican Senate seats so far.

Moh Siong Sim, a currency strategist at OCBC, said the price moves fit concerns about closer scrutiny of AI under a Democratic sweep. He added that passing federal laws would still be hard under President Donald Trump.

Carol Kong, a currency strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said strong US data should support more rate hikes and the dollar. She said oil could jump if Trump escalates the conflict in the Middle East. Markets expect the Bank of England to raise rates for the first time since August 2023.Share

The Commission issued a statement on which political activities are prohibited inside and outside voting stations. It said the law does not require a period of silence from campaigners on election day. Campaigning inside the boundaries of a voting station is still banned.

A person who breaks the campaigning rules can face a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both.

The Commission also reminded voters how to check their registration. A voter can send an ID number by SMS, which costs R1 per message.Share

El-Sayed is 42 and a former public health official. Rogers is 63 and a former congressman and FBI agent. US President Donald Trump backed Rogers.

Republicans held a 53-47 majority in the Senate going into the midterm elections. Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take control of the chamber.

Rogers tried to portray El-Sayed as a radical sympathetic to Islamic extremism, through alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Those claims remain unsupported by evidence, and El-Sayed denies them. Democrats said the attacks relied on Islamophobic tropes.

Rogers also said that ending the war in Iran and the US trade dispute with Canada was necessary to help bring down costs for businesses and consumers.Share

The regional leaders said their special national executive committee took the decision. They named charges of dereliction of duty, conduct that brings the union into disrepute, gross violations of the Numsa constitution and wasteful expenditure. Mbuso Ngubane, a national office bearer, is also among those suspended.

The regional leaders said the national office bearers imposed their suspensions without proper constitutional authority, and that those suspensions must be lifted. They also said the central committee meeting of 23 October was properly constituted and that its decisions remain valid and binding. They said the union's recovery cannot come through factional manoeuvres, intimidation or the undermining of elected structures.

Jim and Chirwa said in a letter that the national office bearers remain the legitimate leadership. The national office bearers said their own special national executive committee resolved to suspend the regional leaders, pending investigations into alleged misconduct. Numsa national spokesperson Mbali Ngwenda was approached for comment.

Reports said the power struggle threatens the credibility of the union. Numsa had about 360,000 members at its peak, before Cosatu expelled it in November 2014.Share

The US government announced the removal on Monday. Deputy Trade Minister John Steenhuisen said South Africa will move to most-favoured-nation status, which adds roughly 3.5 percentage points to existing tariffs. He said the US has not closed its market to South African goods.

Steenhuisen said citrus and automotive exporters will feel the effect most. He urged a bilateral trade deal with the US and more export markets. Agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo also said exporters keep access, but at higher tariffs. He said the higher tariffs do not necessarily mean disaster.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said the government should use the 60 days before the exit to negotiate. Its parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks, said farmers in the Western Cape, Limpopo and Northern Cape are of most concern. He said jobs were already lost over the past year and a half because of changing US tariffs.

Saul Levin of Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies said the impact looks fairly limited. He said sectors hit by earlier tariffs, such as autos and fruit canning, will feel more pain from those.Share

In Pretoria, AccuWeather forecasts a 55% chance of rain during the day, with a 50% probability of thunderstorms and about 2.5mm of rain. Northerly winds will blow at 19km/h, with gusts up to 37km/h. The UV index will reach 13, which is extreme.

Pretoria will see a low of 17°C overnight, with a 62% chance of thunderstorms and 5.4mm of rain. In Johannesburg, the forecast gives a 33% probability of thunderstorms and about 1mm of rain in the day. Gusts there could reach 44km/h, and the UV index will also be 13. The overnight low is 15°C.

Cape Town has a 70% chance of rain in the day, with about 3.8mm expected. Northwesterly winds will blow at 28km/h, with gusts up to 59km/h. The minimum temperature is 15°C, and the UV index will be 10, which is very high. The overnight forecast gives a 63% chance of rain.Share

Voters at the Soshanguve station spoke about their hopes. Thabo Maleka, 39, said he came to vote for change. He said he had been voting for the opposition, but not much had changed.

Bokang Maleka, 19, voted for the first time. The teenager said young people are committed to making the right decisions. Another voter, Baloyi, said illegal migration, unemployment and crime are top of mind.

Baloyi said unemployment keeps rising every year. Baloyi also said the many political parties have turned politics into a business that no longer serves the people. Voters who did not register this time will still be able to vote in the 2029 national elections, Baloyi said.

Voters in metropolitan municipalities receive two ballots. Voters in local municipalities receive three. The Electoral Commission has said it is ready for the polls.Share

Democrats won majorities in both chambers of Congress in the US midterm elections, while vote counting was still under way. Trading was volatile. Priyanka Sachdeva, head of market insights at Phillip Nova, said US President Donald Trump's mixed signals made it hard for traders to take a firm view. She said the military strikes continued while he downplayed further escalation.

Sachdeva also said some profit-taking and fewer speculative long positions were justified after the sharp rally in October.

A US official said the US carried out defensive strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island. The official said they targeted surface-to-air missiles used against US assets. Another US official said the strikes appeared limited and did not signal a return to major combat operations. A senior Iranian official said Iran and the US remained far from a deal to end the war.

US crude stocks fell by 5.27-million barrels in the week ended 30 October, according to American Petroleum Institute data. Gasoline stocks rose by 1.43-million barrels, and distillate inventories fell by 1.19-million barrels. Haitong Futures said diesel inventories remain tight and gasoline stocks rose more than expected. It said the data broadly support oil prices.Share

Oracle is a US cloud provider. Tencent is the Chinese company that was party to the contract.

A single outlet gave this account, and it did not say what form the US pressure took.Share