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

Making headlines: Hill-Lewis projects DA win in Cape Town as election results roll in; ANC support falls sharply in early South Africa municipal election results; And, Senegal's parliament requests withdrawal of 2027 budget bill

Hill-Lewis projects DA win in Cape Town as election results roll in

The DA's Cape Town mayoral candidate Geordin Hill-Lewis has projected that the party will secure roughly 58% of the vote in the City of Cape Town, positioning it to be potentially the only metropolitan municipality in South Africa to govern with an outright majority.

Speaking to activists and supporters following an intense night of counting, Hill-Lewis delivered a triumphant speech reflecting on internal party projections, unexpected growth in traditional opposition strongholds, and the party's governance vision for the next five years.

Reflecting on his previous term, he said it has been an honour and a privilege to serve as mayor for the last five years and that he looks to serving again.

He noted the DA's “unprecedented growth” in areas where the party has historically struggled to gain traction, particularly within Cape Town's townships.

Hill-Lewis characterised the early data coming out of these areas as "nothing short of extraordinary".

ANC support falls sharply in early South Africa municipal election results

South Africa's early municipal election results today showed the ANC with a sharply reduced vote share, in what could shape up to be a nightmare scenario for the long-dominant party.

So far, the ANC has about 32% of the vote, narrowly ahead of the DA on 28%, results from the election commission showed.

Vote tallying was still an early stage and the outcome could change significantly. But if those figures hold the ANC would be down about 14 percentage points from its last municipal election result in 2021, which was already its worst in history.

The ANC, which has been South Africa's largest party since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, has tended to do worse in municipal elections than nationally and has acknowledged its failures in local governance.

But a dramatic loss could open up the field to more competition in the next national elections in 2029, when the pro-business DA has hopes of becoming the country's biggest party.

And, Senegal's parliament requests withdrawal of 2027 budget bill

Senegal's National Assembly has requested the withdrawal of a budget bill for the next year, the West African country's finance ministry said today.

On Tuesday lawmakers rejected a revised budget for 2026, deepening a standoff with the government that risks delaying a new International Monetary Fund programme underpinning Senegal's debt restructuring strategy.

The chair of Senegal's parliamentary finance committee believes the rejection of the 2026 budget bill calls into question the baseline assumptions of the 2027 budget, the ministry said in a statement.

However, the committee has convened a meeting to review the 2027 budget, the ministry added.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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