Ongoing

  1. ElectionsHot
  2. US mid-termsHeating up
  3. AICooling
Newsbrief

Lungisa campaigns in four DA-held wards in Nelson Mandela Bay

Published

Ongoing: Elections Hot

ANC national executive committee member Andile Lungisa visited the wards on Tuesday to win swing and opposition voters. He is one of the ANC's three mayoral candidates for the city, and local government elections are on 4 November 2026.

Lungisa told residents the ANC needed to regain the faith it lost after it lost its majority in 2016. He said Nelson Mandela Bay voters had new faith then and chose the DA under Athol Trollip. He also said Trollip's coalition-era capacity "died" when coalitions started leading.

Lungisa said that even without an outright majority, the ANC must come close so that it leads the government again. At a Mission Vale meeting, he said he would note the names of families who did not vote ANC, so the party could fetch them to vote on 4 November.

Some residents recalled that shanty areas were electrified while Lungisa was the municipality's infrastructure MMC. Two Mission Vale residents said the DA takeover of Ward 31 brought no dramatic change. They blamed the ANC councillor for failing them.

In 2016 the DA won 46.71% of the vote in the city and 57 council seats. The ANC won 50 seats, down from 62 in 2011. In Ward 48, the DA vote share fell from 69.70% in 2016 to 44.63% in 2021.

Key facts

Who
Andile Lungisa (ANC national executive committee member and one of the ANC's three mayoral…); Athol Trollip (former mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, now with ActionSA); Gayton McKenzie (leader of the Patriotic Alliance); Teslin Booysen (DA councillor who reclaimed Ward 31 in 2021)
What
Lungisa, one of the ANC's three mayoral candidates for Nelson Mandela Bay, visited four wards currently administered by the DA, seeking to win swing and opposition voters, and told residents the ANC needed to regain faith lost after the 2016 collapse of its majority rule. The article also sets out DA, ANC and PA vote-share figures for the wards from IEC and The Ledger SA data.
When
27 October 2026
Where
Nelson Mandela Bay, Gqeberha, Mission Vale
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.

  1. IEC dismisses MK Party worry about dead people on voters' roll
  2. IEC says local election voting went largely smoothly
  3. IEC says about 12 million had voted by 5pm

See every update

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.

  1. Iran welcomes Democratic wins in US midterm elections
  2. Democrats win US Congress in midterm vote, projections show
  3. Ramaphosa wants US trade deal after AGOA suspension

See every update

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.

  1. Accenture faces accusations over AI report with false citations
  2. CrowdStrike to buy two AI security startups
  3. Google lets schools turn off AI tools but limits Search

See every update