Eswatini's main political opposition has generally welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting with King Mswati in the small Kingdom this week, in which they agreed on arrangements for a national dialogue to negotiate a way out of the country's political impasse. Ramaphosa met with King Mswati in his capacity as the chair of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) organ on politics, defence and security. The meeting of the two heads of state follows a visit by a special envoy last month

Political Parties have started negotiations to form coalition partnerships. Some parties will likely be forced to swallow their pride and work with their opponents. But others have made it clear that they will not compromise their principles to form a marriage of convenience to govern in local government.

One South Africa Movement Leader Mmusi Maimane has rejected Parliament's claims that OSA accused the national legislature of being in contempt of court. This comes after the Constitutional Court  gave Parliament 24 months to correct the defect in the Electoral Act. The "New Nation Movement NPC" and others who support Independent Candidates, -  successfully challenged the constitutionality of the electoral legislation. Existing legislation does not  make provision for Independent Candidates to contest the national and provincial elections

Some independent candidates in KwaZulu-Natal say they are being threatened by members from the larger political parties in their areas. Over 3-hundred candidates will be contesting the November 1st election as independents, the most in any election.

Its all systems go for the country's sixth Local Government Elections on tomorrow Novermber 1st 2021. These elections are reported to be the most contested with the highest number of ward candidates. Between the logistical challenges of keeping the electorate safe during the Covid-19 pandemic and the dissatisfaction with politicians in general, a significant disruption to the balance of power in all of South Africa's provinces is expected. To chat all things elections we are joined on the line by SABC's Research Specialist on politics, Dr Ronesh Dhawraj(pron-Dowraj)

An ANC candidate councillor in Tshwane Tshepo Malefane is in hiding following the murder of two residents and a local businessman. They were all members of the ANC's local branch in Soshanguve north of Pretoria. One of the deceased was his uncle, 42 year old Khehla Malefane

The Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, has called on all political parties to adhere to the Covid-19 level one restrictions this weekend as political parties make their final push ahead of the November first municipal elections. Phaahla says the infection rate is stable with a positivity rate of less than two percent. New cases declined by 22% over the last seven days, hospitalisations by 14.5% and deaths by 18%. Phaahla, however, warned if the country wants to keep the current trajectory, people must remain vigilant.

Johannesburg residents continued to bare the brunt despite the promise that they will be exempted from the black outs since the City managed to secure extra electricity from Independent Power Producers. When that happened Joburg's City Power released a statement rejecting the latest round of load shedding. Saying the 220 megawatts secured from kelvin power station was enough to keep joburg off the cut schedule for stage 1 and 2.. Eskom hit back basically saying the additional 200 Megawatts is not nearly enough….Eskom said... The city needed at least 1000 megwatts… before it could even begin entertaining removing Joburg from the Loadshedding schedule… it all culminated in the city and Eskom meeting..... and walking away from those talks, NOW cooperating to find ways to get to the point of no load shedding in the city during stage 1 and 2

The South African Human Rights Commission has called on the national government to take over the running of Water and Sanitation Department at the City of Tshwane.in Recommendations from its recent report on the water situation in Hammanskraal, the commission also called for the previous and current management at the City of Tshwane, to be held accountable for the water crisis. The SAHRC found that waste water treatment plants in Tshwane are malfunctioning which has resulted in rivers and Dams being polluted with untreated and partially treated sewerage and sludge.

Another one of our weekly local government election debates with different political parties.