For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines: ‘Get up, show up, vote’ – IEC’s call to action ahead of local elections; Government aims to move with speed on private investments for development; And, Latest Drop reports show more deterioration of South Africa’s wastewater systems

‘Get up, show up, vote’ – IEC’s call to action ahead of local elections

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa today launched its 2026 campaign logo and tagline for the upcoming local government elections: ‘Get up. Show Up. Vote’.

Speaking during the launch in Midrand, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the commission’s logo and corresponding tagline is a call to action and an abiding reminder about the country’s constitutional ethos.

The logo and tagline signal the start of an intensified phase of preparations by the IEC for the forthcoming local government elections.

Last month the commission announced a nationwide voter registration weekend will take place on June 20 and 21, ahead of the upcoming local government elections, the date of which has yet to be announced.

As party to the preparations, he said the commission would conduct a general voter registration weekend with about 24 000 registration points across the country.

Mamabolo said the opening of registration points would ensure that every eligible South African had an accessible opportunity to register, update their details and prepare to vote.

Government aims to move with speed on private investments for development

During the sixth South Africa Investment Conference on Tuesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana spoke about how the government is supporting greater investment by private-sector players in the economy.

Godongwana emphasised that a reliance on monopolies in an economy meant that, if there was a problem with a monopoly, the entire sector it served was challenged.

An example of this was the challenges experienced with State-owned power utility Eskom, which led to years of loadshedding.

Critical to fixing this shortage of power to the grid was to get as many generators as possible online, which also means that there is a more competitive generation market in place.

Godongwana said South Africa aims to create competitive rail transport and energy generation systems and wants to move with speed.

“It is in our interests to implement these [structural economic] reforms because research indicates that, if we are able to move with speed, we can boost our economic growth from 1.6% or 1.8% to about 3.5% a year.”

And, Latest Drop reports show more deterioration of South Africa’s wastewater systems

The latest Green Drop report and the Blue and No Drop progress assessment reports, released by the Department of Water and Sanitation yesterday, have again laid bare the deteriorating state of South Africa’s water systems.

While drinking water systems and nonrevenue water have remained relatively stable – albeit at a high risk level – South Africa’s wastewater systems are continuing to deteriorate.

The full 2025 Green Drop report, auditing 848 municipal wastewater treatment systems across 144 water service authorities during the 2023/24 financial year, shows that 47%, or 396 systems, are in a critical state.

This compares unfavourably with the 39%, or 334 of 850, wastewater treatment systems reported as in a critical state during the 2021/22 financial year.

The number of wastewater systems performing at ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ levels have also declined, from 14%, or 118 systems, in 2021/22, to 8%, or 66 systems, during the latest audit period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

Only 14 systems achieved Green Drop certification – compliance with wastewater standards above 90% – down from 22 in 2022. Five of these are in the Western Cape, one in Mpumalanga and eight in Gauteng. No system in the North West, Northern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State or the Eastern Cape achieved compliance above 90%.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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