Daily news update: Election results trickle in, huge fuel hike

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Elections 2021 live: Arrests, faulty ballots, demand to stop voting

Special votes were cast over the weekend, but that was not without incident. Despite some challenges on Saturday, the IEC declared that they were highly satisfied with start of special voting.

Service delivery protests and technical issues countrywide resulted in delays to the opening of voting stations. Polling stations for special votes closed at 5pm on Sunday.

The 2021 Local Government Elections are South Africa’s sixth municipal elections since the dawn of democracy in 1994 to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of South Africa’s nine provinces.

Follow the 2021 local government election results live here!

After a day of voting in all 278 municipalities in South Africa, the ballots are cast and the long process of voting and announcing the results began after polling stations closed at 9pm.

The fight is on to control each of the eight metropolitan municipalities, which are home to more than two-thirds of South Africans and all have enormous budgets. 

Chaos as Helen Zille dragged out of voting station by man in police uniform

Chaos erupted at the Fernwood Primary School voting station in Bethelsdorp on Monday after Democratic Alliance (DA) federal council chair Helen Zille was dragged out by a man in a South African Police Service (Saps) uniform.

In a video shared by HeraldLIVE, Zille can be seen forcefully taken out of the voting station by the man in uniform, as party members tell him to stop “manhandling” her.

“Please just take a picture of him,” Zille can be heard saying in the video.

Buckle up and fill up! Massive fuel price increases coming on Wednesday

The department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has announced massive price increases for November, which will see fuel prices reach record highs across the board as of Wednesday.

At midnight on Tuesday, the price of petrol will go up by R1,21 per litre, and R1,48 for diesel. This means a litre of petrol inland will cost you R19,50 and a litre of diesel will go for R17.23.

DMRE Minister Gwede Mantashe, announced the price adjustments on Monday night.

Five killed in Phoenix arson, following domestic dispute

A family of five has died after a fire broke out at their flat in Phoenix, Durban, in the early hours of Monday morning.

Durban police who responded to the distress call said seven people managed to escape the blaze.

“When police arrived at the scene they found that seven residents of the flat managed to escape whilst five perished in the fire,” said Durban Saps’ Brigadier Jay Naicker.

The victims are aged between 3 and 37 years old. Residents in the area said there was a domestic altercation at the home prior to the fire.

3 dead, 270 displaced after fuel pipeline fire in KZN

At least 270 people from 130 homes in Clairwood, Durban, have been displaced following a fire at a Transnet fuel pipeline in the area.

The fire is believed to have been the result of a an attempt to steal fuel by perforating the pipeline and siphoning the fuel into a waiting tanker, according to a statement from the provincial department of Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).

The fire apparently broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning at Horseshoe Road, Clairwood. IT was swiftly brought under control by fire and rescue teams, who later found three bodies, who are believed to have died as a result of the fire.

Denel ammunition plant ‘explosion’ turns sky orange

Calls are mounting to have the Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) depot in Macassar, Western Cape to shut down, after the latest explosion at the facility on Sunday night. 

RDM chief executive Jan-Patrol Helmsen told News24 a fire broke out, but was later contained, and that no injuries were reported. 

Helmsen also said an investigation into the cause of the blaze was underway. 

Residents reported the sky lighting up on Sunday night, while others reportedly rushed to the ammunition factory after hearing an explosion.