By Palesa Matlala
- The ANC wants the Electoral Court to overturn the exclusion of councillor candidates who missed the Independent Electoral Commission’s 28 August deadline.
- The candidate list mess affects six municipalities and has put ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula under pressure from senior party leaders.
The African National Congress (ANC) has gone to court to rescue councillor candidates left off its election lists after a deadline blunder that could cost the party representation in six municipalities.
The party has filed papers with the Electoral Court challenging the Independent Electoral Commission’s 28 August deadline for candidate nominations.
The ANC wants the court to overturn the exclusion of members whose names were not submitted before the cut off.
The party is expected to brief the media at 11am on Tuesday, 8 September, about the dispute and its preparations for the 2026 Local Government Elections.
“The briefing will provide an overview of the candidate submission process, and further confirm readiness to contest the upcoming local government elections,” the ANC said.
The trouble started after the ANC admitted last week that it had failed to capture all its candidates on the commission’s online system.
The party blamed what it described as a technical glitch.
It insists its officials uploaded the documents on time.
But the commission has stood firm and said candidate lists submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.
The dispute affects ANC councillor candidates in six municipalities across KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.
That means the ANC risks losing representation in the affected municipalities if its court challenge fails.
In papers filed with the Electoral Court, the ANC argues that the system failure was beyond the control of its members.
The party says excluding the affected candidates would unfairly prevent communities in those areas from being properly represented.
The mess has also increased pressure on ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula.
Senior party leaders are reportedly demanding answers over how parts of the ANC’s candidate lists were not submitted before the deadline.
The full scale of the problem is still unclear because the commission has not published the complete list of registered candidates.
However, the electoral body recently confirmed that its system showed 2,274 candidate nominees from 45 political parties whose details had been captured but had not been formally submitted.
Several prominent ANC figures are among those reported to have been left off proportional representation lists.
They include ANC veteran Frank Chikane, National Executive Committee member and Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nocawe Mafu and former ANC Youth League deputy president Andile Lungisa.
Lungisa reportedly said he had been assured his name would be added during the amendment process.
The candidate list problem has triggered criticism inside the ANC.
Several members of the party’s National Executive Committee reportedly believe Mbalula must explain what went wrong.
The stakes are high for the ANC as it prepares for the local government elections.
Unless the court rules in the party’s favour, candidates excluded because of the missed deadline could remain off the ballot.
The ANC is expected to use Tuesday’s briefing to explain what happened, give an update on its court battle and insist that it is ready to fight the elections.
Pictured above: ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula.
Image source: ANC
