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Newsbrief

Cosatu steps up campaign ahead of 4 November elections

Published

Ongoing: Elections Hot

Cosatu said at a post-congress briefing in Johannesburg that it will back the ANC and the SACP in the local government elections. New General Secretary Zingiswa Losi said that support must be principled.

Cosatu said its campaign follows resolutions of its 15th National Congress. The federation said its task is to make sure workers' voices help set the direction of local government and the country's development path.

Losi said Cosatu will pursue the reconfiguration and renewal of the tripartite alliance. She said this will happen through structured political engagement and an alliance political council.

Losi said: "Political support must be principled and linked to a clear working-class programme rather than treated as an unconditional mandate for any political formation."

Key facts

Who
Zingiswa Losi (General Secretary of Cosatu (newly appointed)); Congress of South African Trade Unions (union federation intensifying its election campaign); African National Congress (party Cosatu says it supports); South African Communist Party (party Cosatu says it supports)
What
Cosatu, at a post-congress media briefing in Johannesburg, said it is intensifying its campaign for the local government elections and will pursue principled support for the ANC and SACP, with its newly appointed General Secretary Zingiswa Losi speaking.
When
28 October 2026
Where
Johannesburg
Status
Reported

Elections Hot

What you need to know

Voting in the 2026 Local Government Elections is under way at 23,696 stations, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported a smooth start on 4 November. Stations opened at 7am and close at 9pm, and by 10am preliminary figures showed 3,523,691 voters had cast ballots.

There were problems: unused ballot papers were stolen from Mnyameni Secondary School near Durban, police opened a case, and the IEC relieved the station staff of duty. Some voters in Tshwane said they were turned away for wearing party shirts, but the IEC denied this and said only mayoral candidates' entourages were barred.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe told members not to query the results or discredit the IEC, while the IEC said false online claims show routine procedures as fraud.

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US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US House and Senate in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters were angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and rebuked President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck targets on Qeshm Island in Iran, while Republicans struggled to defend the war against Iran on the campaign trail. Iranian officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for possible new US strikes.

Markets reacted, with the dollar hitting a one-month low and the rand firming to around R16.55, as analysts pointed to fears of gridlock in Washington.

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AI Cooling

What you need to know

Nvidia has told its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic said it has committed to spend close to $900bn on AI infrastructure, and that its computing costs are rising faster than its revenues.

Elsewhere, reports from unnamed sources say OpenAI's latest funding round is falling short of expectations, and a judge let the NAACP pollution case against xAI proceed. In South Africa, the VAST AI investment scheme went offline on 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.

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