Production: Minenhle Thusi | Journalist: Richard Roberts

Welcome to your Daily NovaNews Newscast, your trusted source for the stories that matter most, from your street to the world stage. Let’s get into today’s headlines.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered the midterm budget yesterday – and South Africans will feel it at the pump. From 4 November, the fuel levy drops by R3 a litre for diesel and R1.50 for petrol. The economy is now expected to grow just 1.2%, down from 1.6%. But national debt has stopped climbing – it sits at 78.4% of the country’s total economic output for the first time in nearly two decades. Godongwana  also set aside R3.8 billion for gender-based violence and R556 million for HIV treatment after the US pulled its funding. Opposition parties were split.

But the budget has another worry – El Niño, and the government is putting R10 billion aside to deal with it. The UN warns it could be the strongest yet. Celeste Saulo of the UN’s weather agency says Pacific temperatures may rise 3.8 degrees above average. Aid chief Tom Fletcher released 50 million US dollars – about R820 million – for the worst-hit countries.

And finally, twenty-three-year-old Jeanet Mokoena signed up as a stem-cell donor at the University of the Western Cape in 2025 – never expecting it would give a stranger a fighting chance. Months later, the call came. She was a match for a leukaemia patient  in his 50s in the United States. The procedure is non-surgical, and the body replenishes the cells on its own. South Africa still has a shortage of donors from Black, Coloured and Indian communities – and patients are more likely to find a match among people who share their ancestry.

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