Money flooding back into South Africa, and the end of an era for South Africa
The rand strengthened on Thursday on early signs that the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) party had performed strongly in local municipal elections and on optimism over the overwhelming victory by Democrats in a US midterm vote.
ETM Analytics said in a research note that markets were interpreting early results from Wednesday’s municipal elections “as a potential shift towards investor-friendly coalitions in major economic centres”.
With 19% of votes counted, South Africa’s former liberation movement, the African National Congress, held about 31.4% of the vote, while the DA had 30.5%, the election commission’s website showed.
A leading research organisation predicted the final tally would give the ANC a similar percentage of the national vote.
On Wednesday, the rand gained more than 1% as Democrats seized control of both the House and the Senate.
South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond was stronger in early deals, with the yield down 13.5 basis points to 8.33% [Reuters]
On Friday, 6 November 2026, the rand was trading at R16.52 to the dollar, R22.20 to the pound, and R18.51 to the euro. Gold is trading at $4,045.08, while oil prices are at $99.91 a barrel.
5 important things happening in South Africa today
Money flooding back into South Africa: The main South African index is up 6.7% on the week, easily outperforming its emerging-market peers. An index of developing nation stocks has dropped 1.3%. [Daily Investor]
The end of an era for South Africa: South Africa is unlikely to return to a system of single-party government for a long time, former apartheid-era negotiator and newly appointed ambassador to the United States Roelf Meyer believes. [EWN]
2026 election results: Predictions look spot-on: At the close of the day on Thursday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had counted 67.5% of the votes, with the national picture aligning with the CSIR’s call. The ANC continues to hold its lead over the DA at 31.7% of total votes – the exact prediction from the CSIR – versus the DA’s 25.2%. The CSIR predicted a 25.8% outcome for the DA. The predictions for the other leading parties are similarly close, with all of the top five being within 1 percentage point of the projections. [BusinessTech]
Ramaphosa’s smart city in South Africa is only shacks and open land six years later: The Lanseria Smart City in Gauteng is the first planned by Ramaphosa. He announced plans for the “truly post-apartheid city” in his 2020 State of the Nation Address. Progress on the Lanseria Smart City project has been slow. MyBroadband has regularly revisited the site and observed little progress over the years.[MyBroadband]
Hope for AGOA: Exporters Western Cape chairperson Terry Gale says that the outcome of the US midterm elections has opened a fresh opportunity for South Africa to avert its impending exclusion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). [Engineering News]
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