Mandela's ANC faces a day of reckoning in next week's South African local elections as Johannesburg's taps run dry

South Africa's November 4 local elections look set to deliver another hammer blow to the ANC, with control of Johannesburg's city hall — the single most scrutinised race in the country — hanging in the balance after years of power cuts, sewage spills and crumbling water infrastructure. The ANC-led coalition running Africa's wealthiest city has squandered the confidence of residents worn down by chronic mismanagement.

A security guard was shot dead on Ockerse Street in Hillbrow, his body found amid mounds of uncollected rubbish piling up during an ongoing bin collectors' strike.