Ongoing

  1. ElectionsHot
  2. US mid-termsHeating up
  3. AICooling
NewsbriefSouth Africa, briefly.
JoburgJHB29°16°CTCT30°17°PretoriaPTA31°17°DurbanDBN27°64%

IEC dismisses KwaZulu-Natal officer over party-branded e-hailing ride

Published

Ongoing: Elections Hot

The Electoral Commission of SA ended the services of a Hammarsdale presiding officer who carried sensitive election material in an e-hailing car with party colours. The IEC also reported party supporters forcing their way into a storage site during special voting.

Provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said the car carried a party colours and logo. She said this sends a wrong message and that IEC staff must be impartial. One report said the car was driven by the officer's son.

The IEC said supporters of one contesting party forced their way into the precinct of a satellite storage facility at Dassenhoek Library. It said parties also tried to gain access or post private guards in Richmond, uMkhambathini and Pietermaritzburg. The IEC said no election material was tampered with. Another report said the incident happened at a facility in Marianhill, and that the IEC asked police to reinforce security at all its storage facilities in the province.

On the first day, 133,931 special votes were administered in KwaZulu-Natal, or 37% of the 362,878 approved applications. Of these, 68,114 were home visits and 65,817 were votes at voting stations. On Tuesday, 228,947 special votes remained, including 83,315 home visits. Masinga said the IEC worries most about the home visits, because they depend on its teams reaching every voter.

Key facts

Who
Ntombifuthi Masinga (IEC electoral officer in KwaZulu-Natal); Electoral Commission (election body running special voting in KwaZulu-Natal); South African Police Service (police service asked to reinforce security at IEC storage facilities); Electoral Commission of South Africa (election body; terminated the presiding officer's services)
What
The Electoral Commission's KwaZulu-Natal office said it had processed just over half of the approved home visits for special voting and still had 83 315 to visit that day. It has asked SAPS to reinforce security at all its storage facilities in the province after members of a contesting political party stormed a satellite storage facility in Marianhill.
When
3 November 2026
Where
KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, Marianhill
Status
Reported

Related stories

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