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  2. US mid-termsHeating up
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Malema repeats call to exempt grant recipients from water and power bills

Published

EFF leader Julius Malema made the call at the Tshela Thupa rally at KaMaqhekeza Stadium in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. He urged voters to back the EFF in the local government election on 4th November.

Malema asked voters to remove the ANC and vote for the EFF. He said the party's Nkomazi mayoral candidate, Mafia Fane, would address service delivery challenges in the municipality.

Malema described Fane as young and energetic. He said the mayor is waiting and ready to take office.

Malema said: "We did not give you an old man. We gave you a young person."

Key facts

Who
Julius Malema (EFF leader); Mafia Fane (EFF Nkomazi mayoral candidate)
What
Malema addressed the Tshela Thupa rally at KaMaqhekeza Stadium in Nkomazi, repeating his call for grant beneficiaries to be exempted from paying for water and electricity, and urged voters to vote EFF and remove the ANC. He said EFF Nkomazi mayoral candidate Mafia Fane would address service delivery challenges.
When
24 October 2026
Where
Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, KaMaqhekeza Stadium
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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