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With 67% of votes cast in Monday's municipal elections having been counted, the African National Congress (ANC) leads in 82 municipalities and controls 62.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is leading in 21 and controls 11 councils while the National Freedom Party (NFP) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) lead in one council each in KwaZulu-Natal. Icosa also leads in one council in Kannaland in the Western Cape.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said most of the results had already been captured and were awaiting auditing.

"At the level of capturing, 90% of results are already in the system awaiting scanning and auditing. This means of the 64 502 results expected, 58 059 have been captured into the results system," the IEC said.

It added, "Of the 58 059 results captured, 44 707 have been scanned into an image and are thus available."

The Northern Cape leads the way, with a completion rate of 82%, followed by the Eastern Cape with 82% and the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and Free State each at 78%.

The completion rate in the rest of the provinces ranges from 55% to 69%. The number of completed municipalities is 111, from a total of 257.

"The commission remains committed to finalising results expeditiously while taking care to ensure that all necessary verifications are enforced," the IEC said.

There was a good showing for the ANC in Limpopo. The party won back the Modimolle-Mookgophong and Thabazimbi municipalities, which it had lost in the 2016 municipal elections.

Since 2016, Modimolle was run by a DA, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Freedom Front (FF) Plus coalition. Now the ANC has the majority.

In Musina, the ANC maintained its majority, with one extra seat - from 18 in 2016, to 19.

The DA has lost support in the area, moving from second place and losing one seat.

The second largest party in Musina is the EFF, who has two seats.

The FF Plus gained a seat here.

In the Maruleng municipality, which includes areas like Hoedspruit, the ANC has maintained its 15-seat majority. However, what is interesting is that the EFF and the DA have lost a seat each since 2016. The EFF now has two seats, independent candidates have two seats, Civic Warriors three, the DA two, and the FF Plus one seat. The FF Plus did not have a seat here in 2016.

Meanwhile in North West, the EFF has made gains in Mahikeng, where the red berets gained five seats. This is a jump from 12 in 2016, to 17 in 2021. The party has also increased its vote share from 17.6% in 2016, to 24.6% in 2021.

The ANC has maintained its majority. The party has 40 seats with 58.5% of the vote share. In 2016, the ANC had 43 seats and 61% of the votes.

The DA has lost two seats – the party dropped from seven seats in 2016, to five. It also saw its vote share drop from 10% in 2016, to 6.3%.

In the Kgetlengrivier municipality, which includes the town of Koster in North West, the ANC held onto its majority with 7 seats in the council, compared to the 8 seats in 2016. Interestingly, the FF Plus has seen growth and has two seats. The EFF has two seats while an independent candidate and the DA have one seat each.

While results have been trickling in in KwaZulu-Natal, the IFP is now leading in one council - the Big Five Hlabisa municipality in KwaZulu Natal. It's always been an IFP stronghold but it now has one more seat than in 2016. The ANC has lost support in that municipality with the EFF, NFP and an independent candidate gaining a seat each.

In the Western Cape, the DA has won an outright majority in the Hessequa council after governing through a coalition for the past five years. The DA has 9 seats, ANC 6, FF Plus 1 and Patriotic Alliance 1.

Meanwhile in Gauteng, there was a drop in support for the ANC in the Lesedi municipality, where it dropped from 62% in 2016, to 50.4% in 2021. The DA also lost support and went from 6 seats to 5 in the council.

Eastern Cape

The ANC looks set to retain the KouKamma Municipality in the Sarah Baartman District in the Eastern Cape.

It is leadi...

With 65% of the municipal votes having been announced, ActionSA says there is tangible proof that the absence of the party's name from ward ballot papers has significantly prejudiced it.

Speaking to News24 from the Electoral Commission of SA's (IEC) results operation centre in Pretoria, ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the party's analysis showed a significantly lower voting percentage in the ward ballot, which excluded the party's name, compared to the proportional representation (PR) ballot.

"One of the things that we are busy analysing right now is the impact of the name absence on the ballot paper, on the ward ballot in particular actually, which does not have the name ActionSA, and the results are quite frightening.

"The results reveal that we are sitting on 30% less on the ward ballot than we are on the PR ballot. You can argue that...this discrepancy may be as a result of vote splitting and that would be logical, but we are getting a very real sense that people really struggled to find ActionSA on the ballot paper, which is something that we are very concerned about.

"This is why we went to court [previously] and this is what we were trying to avoid...now there is potentially a very real prejudice that ActionSA may have to consider our approach to," Beaumont said.

In the previous case before the Electoral Court, the IEC, through its legal representatives, cited previous judgments when it argued that for the relief ActionSA sought, there had to be actual prejudice that could be measured - not perceived prejudice.

Beaumont said the Electoral Court has still not shared its reasoning for ruling against the party

He also bemoaned the low voter turnout, saying that it is an indictment on politicians - not voters.

"It's (the low turnout) a subject of two things, I don't think South Africans are lazy or lack engagement. That's an indictment on politicians - not voters. Political parties have not given the electorate enough reasons to trust them and as a result, they have chosen to stay away. We as ActionSA are also not too naïve to believe that we can change all the voter dissatisfaction after just one vote."

He added that another reason for the lack of participation in the elections was because the IEC had not made clear the measures it would be put in place to ensure that voting stations would not be super spreaders.

"I am a member of the party liaison committee and still didn't fully understand what measures were going to be put in place. So imagine an ordinary citizen. How were they to believe that those stations [would be] safe?" he said.

The Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC’s) elections satisfaction survey (ESS) has found that 84% of voters were completely or very confident that their vote would be accurately counted.

South African went to the polls on Monday to select representatives for local government.

The research is based on random voting stations and about 12 000 voters were interviewed. Voters were asked about their experiences and whether they believed the election was free and fair.

The HSRC selected a sample of 300 voting stations across provinces and interviewed 50 voters at each of the voting stations.

HSRC acting strategic leader and research director Dr Benjamin Roberts presented the preliminary findings of the ESS to the Electoral Commission, further explaining that the survey found that 52% of voters were completely confident in the counting process while 32% of voters were very confident.

Only 1% said they were not confident at all in the vote counting process.

The survey also found that 95% of voters believed that the 2021 local government election was free and fair.

He said this ranged between 90% in Western Cape to 98% in Mpumalanga.

He added that similarly 94% of the voters were of the opinion that the elections procedures were fair.

The survey found that 68% of voters took less than 15 minutes to reach their voting stations, with 22% taking between 16 minutes and half an hour, and almost 10% of voters took a little longer.

Overall, 86% of voters found the voting station easily accessible to persons with disabilities and the elderly, while only 7% did not.

Roberts highlighted that 96% of voters reported dissatisfaction with the instructions and signage to the voting stations, while 97% found the voting procedures inside the voting station easily understandable.

“In terms of the perceived secrecy of the vote at voting stations, 96% of voters expressed satisfaction with the secrecy of the vote. This varied between 94% in the Northern Cape and North West, up to 99% in Limpopo,” said Roberts.

He went on to explain that 96% of voters were in general satisfied with the quality of services rendered by the electoral staff, with 3% opting for a neutral point of view and only 1% dissatisfied.

This dissatisfaction ranged between 93% in North West and Gauteng, and 98% in Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Roberts said voters were asked to rate seven aspects of the conduct of IEC electoral staff at their voting stations, overall there was a very positive assessment of officials. Eighty-one per cent rated officials as extremely helpful, 80% friendly, 80% patient, 79% honest, 78% professional and 78% as interested in their jobs.

SAFETY AND SECURITY MEASURES AT VOTING STATIONS

Ninety-three per cent of voters expressed satisfaction with the safety and security that was provided at voting stations, 2% were discontent with such measures and 4% were either neutral or uncertain.

Roberts said this ranged between 89% in Gauteng and 98% in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.

He stated that the 2021 elections were undertaken during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying voters were asked to assess the safety protocols that the IEC had put in place.

Ninety-two per cent of voters were convinced that the IEC had done enough to protect voters from Covid-19 at voting stations, only 3% were dissatisfied and 5% were neutral or uncertain.

Roberts said this varied between 84% in Western Cape and 98% in Mpumalanga.

Sixty-eight per cent of voters said they were vaccinated.

Stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented from 16:00 on Tuesday afternoon until 05:00 on Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday afternoon, a generation unit at Kusile power station tripped, adding stress to the power system.

A unit each at Matimba and Arnot power stations failed to return to service as previously anticipated.

"These constraints are expected to persist for the rest of the week, which may require the load-shedding to be extended," Eskom said in a statement.

Total breakdowns currently amount to 17 933 MW, while planned maintenance represents 3 451 MW of lost capacity.

Emergency generation reserves are currently "extensively" used to supplement supply, Eskom said.

Over the past 24 hours, Eskom returned a generation unit each at Camden, Kendal and Medupi power stations.

But during the same time, two generation units - one each at the Arnot and Hendrina power stations - tripped.

In addition, another unit at Arnot and a unit at Lethabo power stations were forced to shut down.

Following rolling blackouts over several days last week, load-shedding was suspended on Friday evening.

At the time, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer expressed confidence that the vote counting process following the elections would not be affected by load-shedding.

However, he warned that the power system is still constrained, and some units are "extremely unpredictable and unreliable".

While South Africa undertakes national interventions to meet greenhouse gas emission targets, President Cyril Ramaphosa cited the need for local government to focus on integrating climate change considerations into service delivery planning.

Delegates from across the world are gathering in Scotland for the COP26 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference to accelerate action towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Ramaphosa said the agreements made at COP26 would affect the daily lives of all South Africans.

“At local government level, we need to integrate climate change considerations into service delivery planning. This needs to be in areas such as the design of human settlements, in energy management through solar water heating for low-income households, and in the use of renewable energy in municipal water and wastewater infrastructure,” he explained.

KwaZulu-Natal is already piloting landfill gas to electricity, biomass, biogas and small-scale hydro power, while the City of Cape Town launched the pilot phase of a floating solar power plant at a wastewater treatment works, last month.

Ramaphosa says recent electricity regulation amendments that will allow municipalities to buy and generate their own power will result in an uptake of renewable energy technologies over time.

Beyond energy considerations, South Africa is also looking at air pollution, which is a serious threat to communities in areas of industrial activity.

Communal food gardens, recycling, environmental conservation, as well as water and waste management are also priorities for government

“It is our expectation that as we are playing our part in the global climate change effort and have raised the level of our ambition, other nations should so the same. We will also affirm our position that developed countries have a responsibility to assist developing countries to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change,” Ramaphosa said.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has estimated that 90% of the local government election results will be finalised by Tuesday evening, with final results expected to be announced by Thursday.

South Africans went to the polls on Monday to elect local government representatives.

The IEC reported that as at 10h30 on Tuesday morning, 27% of the 64 502 results expected had been finalised.

“This status is in line with expected result capturing process. It is estimated that 90% of results would be finalised by evening. The balance of 10% would take another 24 hours to complete,” said IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo.

He said the Northern Cape is leading with 74% of the results completed, followed by the Western Cape with 46% and the Free State with 26% of the results counted.

He added that the rest of the provinces' completion rates range between 15% and 37%.

The Commission said it believes that Voter Management Devices (VMD) were the mainstay equipment for this election.

Mamabolo explained that 12 186 869 voters’ details were processed through the VMD’s over the two days of special votes as well as on election day.

“Through the use of the technology, the Commission was able for the first time to register voters and simultaneously capture their addresses during the registration weekend in September. Address capturing would have taken months to complete without the VMD as was previously the case,” Mamabolo explained.

A total of 176 006 additional addresses were included on the voters roll from voters who previously did not have an address.

Meanwhile, the Commission also commented on the low voter turn-out, saying it this was despite educational programmes that assured voters that it would be safe to be at a voting station.

“The Commission would like to call upon all leaders of political parties to act and speak responsibly as the result collation process unfolds. As you will recall, the Commission had anticipated the prospect of a lower voter turnout already in July and approached the Constitutional Court,” Mamabolo said.

He said voter turnout is a multifaceted phenomenon influenced by different factors.

Next month, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will begin its investigation into the civil unrest that occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July to uncover what caused the riots and determine the socio-economic and spatial factors that may have played role.

For eight days in July, South Africa witnessed looting, damage to property and violence that claimed the lives of more than 300 people in both provinces.

Around 180 malls, shopping centres, warehouses and factories were damaged, along with 161 liquor outlets and distributors.

It was estimated that the destruction cost the country billions, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The government, including Ramaphosa, said the unrest was a planned attack on the country.

Ramaphosa said during an address to the nation in July, "It is clear now that the events of the past week were nothing less than a deliberate, coordinated and well-planned attack on our democracy. The constitutional order of our country is under threat."

He also went as far as saying that the looting and violence was "a smokescreen to carry out economic sabotage through targeted attacks on trucks, factories, warehouses and other infrastructure necessary for the functioning of our economy and the provision of services to our people".

The police ministry and Police Minister Bheki Cele echoed similar sentiments as well as State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, who said planned attacks on vital infrastructure had been prevented.

During a briefing on Friday, SAHRC chairperson Professor Bongani Majola said their investigation into the unrest would start in November.

Majola explained that during the unrest, there were constitutional violations which the commission was mandated to investigate.

He said the commission would investigate, and make findings and recommendations on the following:

- the causes of the unrest;

- the causes of the allegedly racially motivated attacks and killings;

- the causes of the apparent lapses in law enforcement agencies, including private security;

- and the extent to which socio-economic and spatial factors played a role in the unrest

The investigation will take place from 15 November to 3 December.

Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she has withdrawn from the race for the chief justice position because she wants to finish her term as the Public Protector.

On Friday, the Presidency announced in a statement that she withdrew her nomination on Wednesday.

In addition, Wallace Amos Mgoqi declined the nomination.

Responding to the announcement, Mkhwebane said that although she was humbled by the vote of confidence in her capabilities, as expressed in her nomination, she decided to withdraw.

"My focus is here at the Public Protector South Africa, where I am left with two years now in office to finish what I started, which is taking the services of this noble institution to the backyards of grassroots communities," she said, adding, "From the bottom of my heart, I wish to thank all those who nominated me and those who threw their proverbial weight behind the nomination. I am truly humbled by your gesture. Words cannot express how indebted I am to you for your unfailing support."

Mkhwebane also explained the work of the Public Protector.

"If you read Section 165 and 181 of the Constitution, they are phrased in virtually the same terms, which means the same respect accorded to the judiciary should be extended to Chapter 9 institutions - not just the Public Protector."

She also said that while courts adjudicate and judges study the facts of the matter, identify the applicable law and apply the law to the facts, the Public Protector is an investigatory body that establishes the facts.

"We then check what should have happened, which involves the identification of all the standards that ought to have been upheld.

"These standards could be the Constitution, the law, polices and so forth.

"We then reconcile the two (what happened and what should have happened). At that point, we are ready to make our findings and, if need be, take appropriate remedial action, which, like court orders, is binding.

"Therefore, as I said, the roles are as close to each other as they are far apart."

Mkhwebane wished the remaining nominees well and congratulated former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for having exercised his powers and performed his functions with distinction and conviction, and for never allowing popular narratives to sway him.

While answering questions, she also gave Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe the nod, saying he is one of the best judges the country has ever had.

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla on Friday warned that although the country has not yet experienced any spike in Covid-19 infections linked to election campaigns, he stressed that this is not yet a point of comfort.

In the lead-up to local government elections on November 1, Phaahla urged all political parties to approach their final campaign events with caution, saying they should limit the number of people attending their gatherings to 2 000 or less.

“We are aware that the next three days are going to be the most risky as political parties rally their supporters at big gatherings to motivate them to go out in big numbers on Monday,” he said.

Phaahla said it is too early to determine any risk posed by the election campaign, adding that it will likely only be known after November 15 whether the country came through the elections unscathed.

“We know that even when there has been a super spreader event the effects will be felt 7 to 15 days later,” he said.

He said notwithstanding the fact that most gatherings are held outdoors, the risk is still high when large crowds gather with no social distancing, no masks and go on to sing and shout.

“We know that our biggest weapon against Covid-19 at this stage is vaccination and we have to use every opportunity where people will be gathered to offer vaccination. We are, therefore, very pleased with the partnership we have struck with the IEC in this regard,” Phaahla said.

VACCINATION AT VOTING SITES

The Department of Health will be setting up mobile pop-up vaccination sites in the vicinity of at least 1 000 voting stations throughout the country, which will target areas mainly where the uptake of vaccination has been low.

Phaahla added that these sites will be set up in the voting precinct but outside of the area demarcated strictly for voting.

The rate of infections over the last 14 days has remained stable at a low base.

By Thursday, the total active cases were 18 568 compared with 46 577 a month ago.

Total admissions to hospital as of Thursday was 3 939 compared with 6 173 on the same day last month and new cases have reduced by 22% over the last seven days.

Hospitalisations have reduced by 14.5% over the last seven days and the death rate reduced by 18%. Overall, the positivity rate is at 1.7% over the last seven days, with all provinces reflecting low positivity rates.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has used his track record as the mayor of Johannesburg in his party's final push to lure voters ahead of Monday's municipal elections.

The party faced challenges en route to contesting its first elections - the biggest was the controversy over how the party appeared on electoral ballots.

It was a battle the party lost in the Electoral Court of SA and had resulted in its name not appearing on ballots to be distributed for ward candidates.

Its name would instead appear on proportional representation ballots.

At a rally held on Thursday in the Joburg CBD, Mashaba said despite the challenges, the party was well on its way to making inroads in various municipalities.

Mashaba told scores of supporters that the party could be trusted. The party is competing for seats in Joburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and in KwaZulu-Natal.

The former Johannesburg mayor's speech relied heavily on his track record in the metro.

He said when he was mayor, for three years, he was able to expand the metro police department by more than 1 000 officers. He said this saw scores of arrests increase in his term of office than at any other time.

He said if he would return to power, the party would produce a CCTV network that would expand the work done by the department.

The former mayor also claimed his tenure saw the expansion of clinic hours, electricity was provided to communities and houses were built.

He said businesses had operated in comfort while he was in charge and that abandoned buildings were distributed, and plans were in place to build 25 000 affordable housing accommodation.

Mashaba said expansion of this work was possible if his party managed to win as many seats as possible in municipalities.

He repeated his previous statements that the party would never go into a coalition with the African National Congress (ANC).

Mashaba said, "ActionSA will never go into a coalition with the ANC. You cannot fix the problem by partnering with the cause of the problem. Voters want an alternative to the ANC and ActionSA is that party."

He added that ActionSA was open and willing to work with other political parties in an open manner.

Mashaba said the party's focus was for the national elections in 2024.

ActionSA tracking poll

ActionSA claimed its internal tracking poll put it ahead in Joburg and with a 3% margin of being the biggest party in Tshwane.

The poll was conducted with about 1 000 residents in each metro.

Mashaba told News24 that, despite criticism that it was too small a sample size, this poll was accurate and that it also spoke to the threat faced by the Democratic Alliance against the possible rise of ActionSA.

"With the numbers that we got; ours (polling) we believe. Yes, the polling can have a margin of error, but I can tell you that an error would be less than 5%. At the end of the day, you can run research and polling, but the decision will be made on Monday by the voters," Mashaba said.