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Six die as taxi and truck collide near Aberdeen

Published

Six other people were seriously injured when the minibus taxi hit the truck head-on near Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. Police opened a case of culpable homicide.

Transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose commented on the cause of the crash. He said fatigue could be a factor.

Binqose said: "The real cause of this accident is not known at this stage; however, fatigue can’t be ruled out as another contributing factor."

Key facts

Who
Unathi Binqose (Transport spokesperson)
What
A minibus taxi collided head-on with a truck near Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape, killing six people and seriously injuring six others. A case of culpable homicide has been opened.
When
24 October 2026
Where
Aberdeen, Eastern Cape
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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US mid-terms Heating up

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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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