Ongoing

  1. ElectionsHot
  2. AIHot
  3. US mid-termsHeating up
NewsbriefSouth Africa, briefly.
JoburgJHB29°69%CTCT21°90%PretoriaPTA33°75%DurbanDBN30°20°

Local election voting ends with turnout near 50%

Published

Ongoing: Elections Hot

Empty school hall with rows of plain voting booths and daylight from tall windows.

About 12 million voters had cast ballots by 5:00pm on Wednesday, a turnout of 44% before special votes. Results are expected through Thursday and Friday, and the Electoral Commission expects to certify the final result over the weekend.

Special votes added 1.4 million ballots on Monday and Tuesday. The projected final turnout of around 50% compares with 46% in the 2021 local government election. Turnout was again lower in mostly black wards than in mostly white wards, with a gap of 10 to 15 percentage points.

Elections analyst Wayne Sussman said the gap was concerning if the numbers were accurate. He said more black South Africans feel voting is not worth it or cannot bring change.

Gary van Niekerk, Deputy Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay and head of the Northern Alliance, said turnout in the metro was weak. He blamed the payment of social grants during the election. Deputy President Paul Mashatile said many areas saw few voters and that the campaign was difficult for the ANC.

President Cyril Ramaphosa voted in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, and said he was confident the ANC would win. ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe said the party should accept the outcome even if it is unhappy.

Key facts

Who
Electoral Commission of South Africa (election management body that ran the vote and expects to certify the final…); Wayne Sussman (elections analyst); Cyril Ramaphosa (President, voted in Hyde Park, Johannesburg); Paul Mashatile (Deputy President, voted in Kelvin, Johannesburg)
When
4 November 2026
Where
South Africa, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni
Status
Reported

Related stories

Elections Hot

What you need to know

After voting closed in the local government elections, actor Tumisho Masha posted a photo of his marked ballot, which the Electoral Commission (IEC) prohibits, so the post may breach its rules. Special voting drew 1,425,942 people on 2 and 3 November, though some elderly approved applicants still went to Kathorus polling stations on election day, saying they did not know about it.

Earlier, the IEC said about 12 million people had voted by 5pm, and Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said anyone in the queue at 9pm would still vote. Voting began at 7am on 4 November, with 98% of 23,696 stations open on time, though protests and rain delayed some.

Problems included stolen ballots and a voters' roll at an eThekwini school, where the IEC said materials were enough and police opened a case, and an elderly woman's death in a Shallcross queue.

  1. Long queues delay voting at Cape Metro polling stations
  2. ANC says IFP supporters attacked two members in Abaqulusi
  3. KwaZulu-Natal police record 18 election cases and arrest 7

See every update

AI Hot

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

US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US Senate and the House in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and the result was a rebuke of President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck Qeshm Island in Iran, which Washington called defensive, while Republicans struggled to defend the war on the campaign trail. Iran's officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for new US strikes.

The dollar fell to a one-month low after the result, and the rand firmed to around R16.55.

  1. Trump says Iran war was worth it despite election losses
  2. Scope Ratings calls Democratic midterm sweep positive for US credit
  3. Iran welcomes Democratic wins in US midterm elections

See every update