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Ramaphosa promises 460 permanent homes at Cornubia by mid-2027

Published

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the homes are for families displaced by the 2022 floods. He spoke at a milestone celebration for the Cornubia Integrated Human Settlement Project in eThekwini on Thursday, where houses went to flood-displaced families.

A further 145 houses are under construction in Phase 2 of the project, which launched on Thursday. Ramaphosa said emergency accommodation must never become a permanent way of life. He said the end goal must be housing that delivers dignity.

Ramaphosa said government is changing its housing model to build integrated human settlements. These place housing near jobs, public services and economic opportunities. He said this is needed to reverse apartheid-era spatial planning.

The Cornubia development covers more than 1 300 hectares. It should house more than 110 000 people over the next 10 to 15 years. Building Phase I of the Cornubia Business Park created around 300 jobs, and the wider project should create more than 2 000 jobs.

Ramaphosa urged faster delivery and said construction problems and other delays must be resolved. He said government will not allow corruption, extortion or patronage in the development. He also asked residents to vote in the local government elections on 4 November.

Key facts

Who
Cyril Ramaphosa (President of South Africa); Cornubia Integrated Human Settlement Project (housing development in eThekwini); KwaZulu-Natal provincial government (identified the Cornubia Housing Development and directed housing units be…)
What
Ramaphosa said government is transforming the housing model toward integrated human settlements near employment, public services and economic opportunities, and urged faster implementation of the Cornubia development and resistance to corruption, extortion and patronage. He also called on residents to vote in the local government elections on 4 November.
When
29 October 2026
Where
eThekwini, Cornubia, KwaZulu-Natal
Status
Reported

Elections Hot

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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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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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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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