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The Electoral Commission (IEC) on Wednesday reminded all eligible South African voters that the weekend of 1 and 2 August 2026 marks the final voting station-based registration opportunity.

“The Commission calls on all eligible South Africans who have not yet registered as voters; those who are registered but have not yet inspected their address details for completeness, or those who have moved residence since they last registered, to use this final opportunity to secure their place on the voters’ roll,” Electoral Commission Chief Executive Officer Sy Mamabolo said.

Addressing the media on the state of readiness for the second round of voter registration, Mamabolo said the Commission has completed its final operational preparations for the upcoming voter registration weekend.

“As part of these preparations, the number of voting districts has been revised from 23 706 to 23 699 following the optimisation of voting station arrangements based on voter activity recorded during the first registration weekend. For the final voter registration weekend, the Commission will operate 23 699 voting stations across the country,” he said.

Mamabolo said all registration stations will operate from 8am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

“The Commission will once again deploy 48 212 trained electoral officials who will be on hand to welcome and assist eligible voters to register, update their details or verify their registration information ahead of the elections,” he said.

During the first voter registration weekend held on 20 and 21 June 2026, over 3 million registration transactions were recorded, reflecting South Africans’ continued commitment to democratic participation.

Mamabolo said the Commission is hopeful that the same spirit of participation will prevail during the final in-person registration drive.  

“Following the first voter registration weekend in June 2026, the Electoral Commission has to date recorded more than 815 000 voter registration transactions.

“Of these, approximately 603 572 (74%) were processed through the Online Voter Registration (OVR) portal, underscoring the growing use of the digital online registration platform among South Africans. The highest levels of online registration activity were recorded in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

“Women remain the leading users of the online registration platform, accounting for 61% of all online registration activity. Young people are also embracing digital registration in significant numbers, with the 16–29 age cohort contributing 50% of all online transactions,” he explained.

In addition, the Department of Home Affairs will once again align its operating hours with the Commission’s voter registration activities, ensuring that eligible voters requiring identity documents have access to the necessary services during the registration weekend.

Once the final voter registration weekend has concluded, the Commission anticipates that the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) will proclaim the date of the 2026 Local Government Elections.

Mamabolo said the voters’ roll will close at midnight on the day the election is proclaimed.

“From that point onwards, no new voter registrations or changes to existing voter registration details may be processed until after the elections. Consequently, the Electoral Commission will cease all registration drives and deactivate the online voter registration portal,” he said.

He further explained that the Electoral Code of Conduct issued in terms of the Municipal Electoral Act comes into operation until the election results are announced.

“The purpose of the Code is to foster conditions for free and fair elections by creating a climate of tolerance, open public debate and free political campaigning. The Commission wishes to indicate that the “no go” zones go against both the letter and spirit of the Code.

“We reiterate that all registered political parties, the leaders and office bearers of parties, candidates nominated by parties and independent candidates are bound by the Code.”

Mamabolo said candidate nomination processes for party candidates and independent candidates may commence.

“To this end, the Commission has activated the Online Candidate Nomination System to facilitate nomination. The system is accessible via the public website at www.elections.org.za

Eligible voters have also been urged not to wait until the last minute to register or update their details.

“Experience has shown that a surge in registration activity often occurs closer to key deadlines, creating avoidable pressure on registration channels,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za    
 

The EThekwini Municipality’s Electricity and Energy Directorate has welcomed a landmark conviction in a major electricity cable theft case, marking a decisive victory in the city’s fight against infrastructure crime. 

This follows the sentencing of three suspects who were convicted for damaging critical electricity infrastructure and possessing stolen municipal property valued at approximately R1 million. 

The convictions stem from a 2022 incident when members of the Umkhomazi South African Police Service (SAPS) acted on intelligence regarding electricity cables being stripped and burnt at a homestead near the Umkhomazi Police Station.

Investigators from eThekwini Municipality’s Electricity and Energy Directorate later confirmed that the recovered cables belonged to the municipality, leading to the arrest of three suspects. 

The matter was investigated through a joint effort between SAPS and the municipality’s Infrastructure Theft Division before being successfully prosecuted in the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court.

The court found all three accused guilty of damaging essential infrastructure and possessing stolen municipal property.

The first accused, a 37-year-old subcontractor who was working for the municipality at the time of the offence, was sentenced to 15 years’ direct imprisonment.

The second accused, aged 26, was sentenced to three years’ direct imprisonment, while the third accused, a 63-year-old woman, received five years’ direct imprisonment.

“This conviction underscores the Directorate’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding critical infrastructure and ensuring the reliable delivery of electricity services. Working hand‑in‑hand with law enforcement, the municipality will continue to investigate, prosecute, and secure convictions against those who threaten essential services,” the municipality said in a statement on Wednesday.

The municipality reiterated its zero-tolerance approach to electricity theft, vandalism, and all forms of infrastructure crime.

“This ruling sends a clear message that offenders will face the full might of the law.”

The city also urged residents to report suspicious activities involving electricity infrastructure to help protect public resources. – SAnews.gov.za
 

Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, has called for structural women’s empowerment that rejects discrimination and advances equality, economic ownership and women’s leadership, while reflecting on the gains made since the advent of democracy.

Letsike was addressing women at the Fray Media and Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Rise and Shine Women in Media Breakfast, held under the theme: “Empowered women empower the nation.” 

She stressed that empowerment is not the private escape of a few exceptional women from a structure that continues to oppress millions. 

“It is the collective redesign of that structure, so the next woman does not have to survive the same violence, exclusion and exhaustion,” the Deputy Minister said on Wednesday in Johannesburg.

She highlighted that democracy fundamentally altered the legal and political status of women.

“These are not cosmetic gains. They have changed who makes law, interprets policy and leads institutions. Our Constitution made equality and non-sexism founding values. 

“Democratic South Africa expanded reproductive freedom, strengthened protection against domestic and sexual violence, recognised women in customary marriages and advanced equality in employment,” the Deputy Minister said.

According to Letsike, women’s representation in Parliament had risen from 33% in 2004 to 42.8% in 2024.

In the National Council of Provinces, women’s representation reached 44.4%, while representation in senior public service management rose to 45.2% in 2023.

In addition, more tertiary-qualified women have also entered physical, mathematical and engineering fields.

The Deputy Minister said South Africa needed a care compact built on five commitments: recognising care, reducing its labour, redistributing it across women, men, the state and the market, rewarding paid care workers with decent conditions, and representing care workers in decisions that affect them.

“That means accessible early childhood development, support for older persons and persons with disabilities, reliable water and transport, social protection, parental leave that changes men’s behaviour, and gender-responsive budgets that reveal who benefits and who carries the cost,” she said. 

Letsike urged women to confront forms of workplace harassment disguised as humour, familiarity or supposedly harmless comments.

She said remarks about a woman’s health, body, clothing, voice, sexuality, marital status, motherhood or ambition are often dismissed as “just a joke”, with women expected to laugh along or risk being labelled difficult, humourless or overly sensitive.

“We must be clear: there is no derogatory joke that is harmless. Humour does not neutralise humiliation. It teaches the room that a woman’s dignity is negotiable; that her authority can be reduced to her appearance, and that her belonging depends on her willingness to tolerate contempt. 

“A workplace committed to equality must interrupt this conduct immediately, rather than asking women to carry it quietly,” the Deputy Minister said.

She said South Africa must build an information economy in which women own institutions, shape technology and receive a fair share of public and commercial value.

“Let it be said that we moved from visibility to ownership, from representation to redistribution, and from policy promise to lived freedom,” the Deputy Minister said. SAnews.gov.za

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has secured a judgment declaring unlawful and invalid a R9 million National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grant to non-profit organisation (NPO) Motheo Sports and Entertainment Foundation for a sports complex that was never constructed.

The order was handed down by the Special Tribunal, a specialised judicial forum, established to recover public funds lost to fraud, corruption and illicit money flows.

The judgment found that the NPO, together with former NLC officials and other individuals, diverted funds meant for a sports complex in Protea Glen in Soweto, for personal enrichment.

“The Tribunal set aside the grant agreement and ordered Jeremane Petrus Sedibe, whom the SIU identified as the mastermind behind the scheme, together with Motheo, former NLC officials, associated individuals and entities involved in the unlawful conduct, to jointly and severally repay R6 million.

“The first two tranches [total R6 million] were released [by the NLC], but the third tranche was withheld because the SIU investigation revealed that the funds had been diverted and the sports complex was never constructed. The falsified progress report and irregular approvals meant the NLC could not justify releasing the final tranche,” the SIU said in a statement.

Additionally, the Tribunal also upheld a previous decision to preserve the pension fund of former NLC employee Sanele Dlamini until the SIU recovers the misused funds in full.

Dlamini approved the second funding tranche for the NPO.

Web of collusion

The order follows an SIU investigation which revealed that Motheo’s original application for more than R61.6 million was unsuccessful after the NLC approved only R70 000, which the organisation declined.

However, some five months later, former NLC Grant Funding Projects Manager Marubini Ramatsekisa recommended that the NPO receive R9 million through the NLC proactive funding process.

“The recommendation was approved by former Acting Chief Operations Officer Nkhesho Njoni.

“On 24 May 2021, Tebogo Joseph Mohlala, the Director of Motheo, and Nonhlanhla Matshazi, co-director of Londilox NPC, signed a grant agreement with the NLC,” the statement read.

The funds were paid to be paid in three tranches and after the first R3 million payment:

• R950 000 was transferred to PSKO (Pty) Ltd, a company owned by Sedibe;
• R500 000 was transferred to Londilox NPC, co-directed by Matshazi;
• R400 000 was paid to Synercon (Pty) Ltd;
• Between June and August 2021, there were teller cash withdrawals totalling R750 000, ATM withdrawals totalling R282 850 and purchases, bank charges and other transfers totalling R117 150.

“The investigation further established that a progress report prepared by Ziphozinhle Khoza of SRSQS Quantity Surveyors and approved by her boss, Marito Mabunda, falsely portrayed construction progress and expenditure, covering 9 June 2021 to 30 November 2021. Based on the evidence, the SIU found a prima facie case of fraud, theft and corruption against Sedibe, Motheo, Matshazi, Khoza and others involved in the scheme.

“The Judge has since ordered Motheo, Ramatsekisa, Njoni, Mohlala, Sedibe, Moadi, Dlamini, Matshazi, PSKO and 2MC to jointly and severally repay the sum of R6 million,” the statement explained. – SAnews.gov.za