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JMPD blames city administration for blocked fuel cards

Published

The Johannesburg Metro Police Department says its state-issued fuel cards were blocked during a transitional arrangement between the city and a service provider. It says the matter is now resolved. A local councillor said the cause was non-payment.

The JMPD said the fuel-payment problems came from administrative issues at the City of Joburg. The municipality has not yet explained what went wrong and had not answered media queries.

Wayne Duvenage of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse said the city's management and administration have collapsed. He also said the mayor and people in political power may not understand how far the collapse has gone.

Key facts

Who
Johannesburg Metro Police Department (department whose fuel cards were blocked; said the problem was caused by City…); Wayne Duvenage (of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse; commented on the city's administration); City of Joburg (municipality that was yet to respond to media queries)
What
The JMPD said its state-issued fuel cards were blocked during a transitional arrangement between the city and a service provider, and that the matter has since been resolved. The municipality has yet to clarify what went wrong, and a local councillor said the issue was non-payment.
When
20 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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