{
  "id": 18157695,
  "title": "12 million South Africans cast ballots by 5pm: IEC",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/12-million-south-africans-cast-ballots-by-5pm-iec",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-04T17:11:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "SABC News",
    "slug": "sabc-news",
    "url": "https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/1174713-2/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "By 5pm on polling day, the Electoral Commission of South Africa announced that an impressive 12 million citizens had cast their votes in the local government elections. Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo disclosed these preliminary numbers during a media briefing at the Results Operations Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg. Registered voters who remained in line at the 9pm cutoff time were permitted to cast their ballots.\n\nGauteng led with 3 million voters, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 2.5 million, the Western Cape with 1.5 million, the Eastern Cape with 1.4 million, Limpopo with 1.1 million, Mpumalanga with 854,000, the North West with 702,000, the Free State with 588,000, and lastly, the Northern Cape with 299,000.",
  "summary": "Mamabolo was briefing the media at the Results Operations Centre in Midrand.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}