First Take SA

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will announce the final results of the 2021 local government elections later this evening. The electoral process had its own challenges with at least over 80 objections lodged with the IEC by the end of business yesterday. But the electoral body says all the objections will be dealt with after the announcement of the results. For the latest election results that came out overnight from the National Results Operation Centre, ROC, in Pretoria, here is SABC's specialist researcher, Maswele Ralebona.....

Political analyst, Susan Booysen highlights what it means to form coalitions in this day and age....

CSIR's Professor Pravesh Debba gives us an update on predictions for the 2021 Local Government Elections....

Clearer pictures are emerging around the country as results come in. Some provinces are still too early to call. However, Observer Paledi Magopa from the Centre for Civic & Democracy Education says councillors are neglecting their civic duties...

The Electoral Commission says issues around shortages of ballot papers were resolved. Voting in the 2021 Local Government Elections ended last night across the country with eight million people having cast their vote by five o'clock yesterday afternoon. To unpack available results thus far is Professor Pravesh Debba from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSRI)....

The Independent Electoral Commission says its all systems go for this weekend's special votes. Approximately 26 million South Africans are eligible to vote in the polls, with over 95 thousand candidates running to capture about 10-thousand-500 seats in the country's 257 municipalities. The IEC maintains that all measures are in place to protect the integrity of the results as the commission launched its Results Operations Centre in Pretoria midweek. For our final Local Government Election Forum we are now joined by the IEC's Deputy Chief Electoral Officer for Outreach, Mawethu Mosery. 

With days to go to the November 1st local government elections, some political parties are complaining about the destruction of their posters. They say that several displayed on lamp posts have been damaged, while others have been defaced on social media.

This election campaign has seen many political parties  capitalize on their campaign messaging and branding while some have missed the mark completely. We spoke to Branding Specialist, Dr Kuhle Zwakala and Independent Political Analyst, Khanyi Magubane ..

Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, says Eskom is likely to downgrade loadshedding to Stage Three tonight - and move to Stage Two for the rest of the week. This follows the power utility's announcement of the implementation of Stage Four loadshedding, which started at midday today. Eskom says this was due to a shortage of generation capacity and units tripping at several power stations. No loadshedding is expected over the weekend. We spoke to  Energy expert Ted Blom joins us on the line

The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster Ministers have assured South Africans that citizens will be able to access all areas of the country during the local government elections next week. The Ministers briefing the media on the safety and security situation ahead of the polls, say focus is on four provinces, including Kwa Zulu-Natal and Gauteng with regards to political violence. Around 300 voting stations are regarded as high risk, where more police will be deployed.

In today's 2021 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION FORUM  we take a deeper look at security issues that could affect the upcoming elections. For this discussion we are joined by a security & violence expert from Stellenbosch University, Dr Guy Lamb and the Deputy Director at the Centre of Cyber Security at the University of JHB, Dr Jaco Du Toit

With just six days left before the Local Government Elections, access to information on political parties, their nominated candidates and the voting process has come to the fore. To help South Africans and in line with its public mandate, the SABC recently launched a dedicated website to bring you up to the minute election coverage and everything you need to know before you cast your vote on November 1st. To tell us about how the website works and what information you as a voter can access from it, we are now joined by Digital Media Specialist at the SABC Digital News Division, Ben Malubane