Elections Hot

The home visits take place on 2 and 3 November. The commission has deployed 127 000 electoral officials for home visits and for special voting at voting stations. KwaZulu-Natal has the most approved home visits of any province, at 143 714.

Mamabolo spoke at a media briefing on Sunday. He said voters who miss the visit are not shut out of the election. In his words, "voters who miss the home visit by the election officials on 2 and 3 November are not disenfranchised".Share

Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo spoke at a press briefing at the national results centre on Sunday. The ballots were reprinted after a Constitutional Court ruling on 15 October. The court ordered the reinstatement of 181 ANC candidates who missed the candidate-list deadline. The relief was extended to 32 other parties, which affected ballots in 107 municipalities.

More than 2.6 million voters are approved to cast special votes over two days. Of these, 678 525 are approved for home visits, and KwaZulu-Natal has the most visits at 143 000. Nearly 2 million voters are approved to vote at voting stations, and Gauteng has the most, at 391 000. The commission deployed 127 000 electoral officials for home visits and special voting.

Mamabolo said weather forecasts show a high possibility of rain in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga over the next two days. He said voters who miss the home visit are not disenfranchised. They can still vote at their voting station on 4 November.

The commission accredited 117 domestic observer groups. About 15 African electoral commissions take part in its international visitors programme.Share

Ntombfuthi Masinga, the provincial electoral officer of the IEC in KwaZulu-Natal, asked voters to learn the rules at voting stations. Campaigning is banned there. Photographing ballot papers is also banned.

Masinga said taking a picture of the ballot paper after voting is an electoral offence and that offenders will be arrested. She said: "We do not allow you to take a picture of the ballot paper once you have voted at the voting station."

On main voting day, voting stations open at 7 in the morning and close at 9 at night. The IEC said it is ready for the polls.Share

IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo spoke at a media briefing on Sunday night. He said 678 525 approved special votes will be cast at residences, for voters with a physical infirmity or disability. Another 1 976 542 will be cast at registered voting stations.

Gauteng has the most approved special voters, at 480 721. The Eastern Cape has 401 971 and KwaZulu-Natal has 348 971. KwaZulu-Natal has the most approved home visits, at 143 714, and Gauteng has the most station-based special votes, at 391 589.

Special votes will be counted with the Election Day ballots. Mamabolo said: "Voters are reminded that they can only vote where they are registered." Voters can check their special vote status by SMS to 32711, at R1 per message.Share

NATJOINTS Chairperson Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili spoke at a media briefing at the NATJOINTS Coordinating Centre in Tshwane on Sunday. She said defiance of the ban would be a crime. Her words were: "No campaigning or political persuasion is permitted on Voting Day."

Demonstrations are also banned within 100 metres of voting stations. The ban covers voting, counting and the announcement of results.

NATJOINTS said enough law enforcement personnel are deployed in all provinces. It said intelligence assessments and identified threats shaped the security plans. The aim, it said, is to protect life, property and the constitutional rights of all South Africans.

The briefing also covered a Durban High Court interim order on protests in KwaZulu-Natal. Special voting takes place on Monday and Tuesday, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa stated that it is ready.Share

Mamabolo spoke to the media at the National Results Operations Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg. He said the weather forecast shows possible rainfall in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. He said North West, Limpopo, Northern Cape and Free State are experiencing hot weather.

Mamabolo said: "The commission encourages voters to check local weather forecasts and to take appropriate precautionary measures to be able to vote without hiccups."Share

The warnings cover parts of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, the Free State and Gauteng. A Yellow Level 4 Warning covers parts of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

A Yellow Level 2 Warning covers the KwaZulu-Natal coast between Port Edward and Mtubatuba. A Yellow Level 1 Warning covers parts of the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

The IEC said it is ready to run special voting on Monday and Tuesday. Voting Day for the 2026 Local Government Elections is Wednesday, 4 November.Share

Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, co-chairperson of Natjoints, briefed the media in Pretoria on Sunday night. Gauteng had the most murders with 7, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 6 and the Western Cape with 3. The Eastern Cape had 2, and the Free State and North West had 1 each.

Police arrested 48 suspects in election-related cases. Of the 139 cases, 69 are under investigation, 8 went to the senior public prosecutor and 25 are in court. The Electoral Act offences were the largest group with 72 cases and 22 arrests.

Mosikili said no marches or protests will be allowed and that they will count as a crime. Reports said Natjoints has identified 331 high-risk voting stations, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. She said police capacity is adequate to respond to these risks.

Mosikili said campaigning ends at midnight on Tuesday. She said heightened election security will not suspend ordinary policing. SANDF Lieutenant General Siphiwe Lucky Sangweni said the defence force has aircraft to move voting materials and officials if bad weather blocks roads.Share

Of the approved voters, 678,000 will vote at home through visits by IEC officials. KwaZulu-Natal has 143,000 approved home visits, the most of any province. Women make up 74% of home visit voters and men 26%.

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo urged voters approved for home visits to stay at their registered addresses. He said: "The officials will not return to the same address if they don’t find the voter when they visit for the first time,"

The IEC is finalising distribution of about 28 million reprinted ballot papers. Mamabolo said printing is complete. Voting stations will open from 8am to 5pm on both days, and 29,230,808 voters are registered for the elections.Share

Hendrickse spoke ahead of the local government elections on Wednesday. He said teams are working hard to make sure voting stations are prepared and materials are in place.

He said the IEC took safety into account because of deadly gang conflict and taxi violence in parts of Cape Town. The South African Police Service is a security partner for the elections.

Hendrickse reminded voters to bring an accepted form of ID. He also told them to vote at the station where they are registered.Share

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa gave the keynote address at the ANC Siyanqoba rally in KuGompo City on Sunday. He said: "We only win by convincing voters that this election is important." He also said the ANC has a clear and credible plan to build better communities.

The EFF held its Tshela Thupa rally at Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Saturday. EFF leader Julius Malema said municipalities have been captured by service providers, contractors, corrupt officials and politicians. The DA held its final rally in Mamelodi, Tshwane, on Saturday, where federal leader Geordin Hill-Lewis urged supporters to make the DA the biggest party in the country.

The MK party held its Sithatha Omasipala rally on Sunday. Party leader Jacob Zuma was expected to give the keynote address. The R54bn is meant mainly to fix water and electricity infrastructure.

Opposition parties said they expect the ANC to perform poorly. They said voters have grown disillusioned with poor service delivery.Share

The IEC is set to brief the media on its state of readiness for the two-day special voting period. The approved applications cover the whole country.

General election day is Wednesday 4 November. Special voting takes place on the two days before it.Share

Ramaphosa was due to be the keynote speaker at the dinner, held at the KuGompo International Convention Centre in the Eastern Cape. ANC chair Gwede Mantashe described the absence as a family crisis.

Mantashe said Ramaphosa led the campaign from the front. He also said: "This campaign was quite formidable. I think we should make that assessment before we deal with the results because results can make you reach different conclusions."

Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Oscar Mabuyane said the campaign was extensive despite financial challenges. He called the Constitutional Court judgment on councillor candidates a huge relief.

The court ordered the Independent Electoral Commission to reinstate 181 ANC candidates. Candidates from 44 parties, 2 093 in all, remain excluded from the November local elections.Share

Committee chairperson Thebe Khumalo spoke in a statement ahead of the elections. He said: "no political contest is worth a single life lost and no political difference justifies violence, intimidation or the destruction of community relations."

The committee said law enforcement visibility should be a priority at the high-risk stations and areas. A related article refers to 331 high-risk voting stations that the South African Police Service (SAPS) identified for the municipal polls.Share

Kekana spoke at a media briefing hosted by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi on gender-based violence and femicide. He said police plans work with local traffic police, private security companies and the SANDF soldiers deployed in the province. He said all high-risk stations get special planning, resources and guarding.

Johannesburg has 75 of the high-risk stations in Gauteng. Ekurhuleni has 23 and Tshwane has 14. The West Rand has three and Sedibeng has one.

Nationwide, police have named 331 voting stations as high-risk. The eThekwini metro in KwaZulu-Natal has 124 of them. National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said the week before that the SAPS is ready to ensure safe, secure and peaceful elections.Share

The ANC is holding its final Siyanqoba rally in eThekwini. The MK Party is also holding its final rally there. The IFP is holding its final rally in Ulundi.

Reports said early voting opens on Monday morning. Zuma spent about a week in hospital before the rallies.

The ANC has governed eThekwini, the only metro in KwaZulu-Natal, for 26 years. Several polls predict that its support will fall further. Polls also predict that the MK Party will be the biggest party in the metro.Share

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa chairs the committee. He called on South Africans to protect democracy and take part peacefully. He said: "Your vote matters. Your voice matters. Your participation matters."

The Electoral Commission (IEC) says its results system is fit for purpose after independent testing and auditing. It says it addressed all findings. The National Results Operations Centre will coordinate results from 23 696 voting stations.

The committee said registration weekends in June and August led to almost 4.7 million interactions with voters. More than 750 000 new voters joined the roll. People under 29 made up 46% of new registrations in the final weekend.

The Department of Home Affairs is extending front-office hours for identity documents. The South African Weather Service said current forecasts do not point to significant adverse weather on election day. It said monitoring must continue.Share

McKenzie made the claims in a series of posts on X. He said other parties increasingly show willingness to work with the ANC. He said the EFF and the MK Party moved from refusing to join the Government of National Unity (GNU) to joining only if the DA and FF Plus stay out.

McKenzie accused the DA of alienating possible partners through its treatment of smaller parties during campaigns. He said the ANC was more accommodating. He named George, Saldanha Bay, Matzikama, Stellenbosch, the Cape Town metro and Swellendam as places where the DA will lose its majority.

He also said ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula is irritated with the DA, and that Mbalula's criticism matches that of Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi. McKenzie wrote: "The DA will have no leverage left in a few days."Share

The briefing will take place at the National Results Operations Centre. The co-chairs of the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) will also speak on the readiness of the security cluster. The special votes are set for 2 and 3 November.

The Electoral Commission approved 678 525 home visit applications for 2026. That is 171 118 (33.7%) more than the 507 407 approved in 2021. In 2021 the commission approved 1 147 759 special vote applications in all.

Online platforms received 2 426 066 of the applications. Staff captured another 171 214 manual applications at commission offices.

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said the South African Police Service is operationally ready to secure the elections. He said: "We have been planning for these elections for several months".Share

The committee issued its statement on Sunday, ahead of the Local Government Elections on 4 November 2026. It said: "no political contest is worth a single life lost and no political difference justifies violence, intimidation or the destruction of community relations".

Approved special votes will be cast on 2 and 3 November 2026. The Electoral Commission approved 2 655 067 special vote applications for these elections. That is a 131% increase on the 1 147 759 approved for the 2021 elections.

The South African Local Government Association urged registered voters to make the election a priority. The statement also highlighted coordination between the Electoral Commission and law enforcement.Share