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Mbalula says ANC has done all it can for election campaign

Published

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula spoke in Duncan Village in the Eastern Cape, ahead of the local government elections. He said challenges forced the party to go to the Constitutional Court to have over a hundred candidates on the ballot.

The ANC plans its Siyanqoba Rally for Sunday at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane. ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address.

Mbalula said the party will not take votes for granted. In his words: "We will campaign until the end therefore a vote is not a given."

The ANC said it is confident it will keep Buffalo City Metro with more seats. It now holds 61 seats there. Mbalula also said water supply in the province will return to normal in the next couple of months because of infrastructure work by the department and local municipalities.

Key facts

Who
Fikile Mbalula (ANC Secretary-General); Cyril Ramaphosa (ANC President); African National Congress (Governing party contesting the local government elections)
What
Mbalula said the ANC has done all it can for a successful local government elections campaign, despite challenges that led it to approach the Constitutional Court to have over a hundred candidates on the ballot. The ANC's Siyanqoba Rally is planned for Sunday at Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane, where Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address.
When
27 October 2026
Where
Duncan Village, Eastern Cape, Mdantsane
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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