The ANC’s failure to formally register some candidates for the November 4 local government elections has triggered an internal political crisis, with senior party figures warning that the blunder could cost the organisation municipalities it still controls.
The crisis has also placed secretary-general Fikile Mbalula under growing pressure, with members of the ANC’s national executive committee calling for him to account over a process that left prominent candidates off the submitted lists.
Among those reportedly affected are ANC and government veteran Frank Chikane, who had been earmarked as the party’s answer to DA campaigner Helen Zille in the contest for Johannesburg’s mayoral chain.
ANC NEC member and deputy sports, arts and culture minister Nocawe Mafu was also reportedly left off the proportional representation lists. Mafu had recently been named as one of four candidates being considered for mayor of Buffalo City, the only metropolitan municipality the ANC still controls outright.
Former ANC Youth League deputy president Andile Lungisa was also omitted. Lungisa said he had been assured that his name would be added during the amendment period.
It remains unclear how many prospective ANC councillors were affected because the Electoral Commission of South Africa had not yet publicly released the full list of registered candidates.
The commission has, however, confirmed that its system showed 2,274 candidate nominees from 45 parties whose names had been captured but not formally submitted by the parties concerned.
The IEC rejected the ANC’s explanation that a technical glitch had caused the problem.
Instead, the electoral body said the system had operated as designed and that political parties had been given access to the platform from June. Candidates whose details were captured but not formally submitted before the 5pm deadline could therefore not be accepted through the ordinary registration process.
ANC Blames Technical Glitch
Luthuli House has sought to limit the damage by blaming an unexplained technical glitch and arguing that candidates who were inadvertently left out could still be included if the IEC reopened the amendment process.
The IEC has rejected that position and indicated that it would not simply accommodate late submissions after the deadline.
The disagreement has now moved beyond internal ANC criticism and into a legal battle.
The ANC approached the Electoral Court after the IEC refused to hear its case. IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo confirmed that the commission had been notified of the appeal.
“The commission has received the ANC’s appeal to the Electoral Court yesterday [Friday] and … is applying its mind to the legal questions raised in the appeal. Once the Electoral Court issues directives, the commission will outline its response,” Mamabolo said.
The appeal will determine whether the affected candidates can still be considered for the elections or whether the ANC must contest in the affected municipalities without people it had selected internally.
The matter is particularly serious in parts of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, where the party risks losing municipalities or seats because of the omissions.
The Eastern Cape is believed to be the hardest-hit province, with candidates affected in the OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo district municipalities, as well as the Sundays River Valley and Walter Sisulu local municipalities.
In Port St Johns, the ANC reportedly failed to submit the names of 20 ward councillor candidates and 19 proportional representation candidates.
The party is also said to have failed to field candidates for uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal’s Midlands, a municipality near New Hanover where the ANC still has support.
The omission is politically damaging in KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC is trying to rebuild support lost to former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party.
Mbalula Under Fire
The dispute has placed Mbalula at the centre of an internal fight over accountability.
At least nine NEC members reportedly said he should be held personally liable for the failure to submit the lists correctly. Other members said the matter was serious enough to justify a disciplinary hearing that could potentially lead to his removal as secretary-general.
The anger intensified after Mbalula dismissed criticism at a party gathering on Thursday, saying he was “the boss of the ANC” and that he was being criticised by “rubbish” people who did not know what they were talking about.
His comments triggered a public response from NEC member Mondli Gungubele.
“The failure to submit municipalities and a set of candidates to the IEC is a scandalous incident that cannot be joked about. As leadership, if we cannot be embarrassed by this we aren’t worth the idea,” Gungubele posted.
A fellow NEC member supported Gungubele’s criticism and said party members had started building a case against Mbalula.
“Mbalula cannot be absolved from blame. Mbalula is a law unto himself,” the member said.
Another member accused Mbalula of reopening the lists with regional and provincial leaders on Friday after the NEC had already approved them.
The member argued that the action was unprocedural because the NEC had effectively ratified the lists as final and any further changes would have required another NEC meeting.
“To my knowledge, once the NEC is done, that’s the final stage, and the secretary-general must submit the list. The NEC finalised that list on Wednesday, and it meant that either on Wednesday night or Thursday he should have submitted it, as is,” the NEC member said.
Other NEC members said this was one reason Mbalula should face a disciplinary process.
“This one [Mbalula] thought he is the boss. That’s why he’s going around saying he’s the boss. Now the bossing is haunting him; the boss must now account. The buck stops with him anyway, not the provincial secretaries,” one member said.
Defenders Say ANC Must Share Blame
Mbalula has continued to deny wrongdoing and has blamed an IEC glitch for the failure to register some candidates.
Speaking at an ANC Women’s League event in Ebony Park, he said he was not intimidated by criticism from ANC members.
“I am not scared of ANC members. I understand the ANC and its members,” he said.
“I know the duplicitous, I know the honest and I know the liars who are not working for the party; they specialise in being vocal …”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has also continued to back the ANC’s explanation.
Ramaphosa said the party had submitted its candidate lists nationally but that there had been glitches involving the interface with the IEC system.
“There were some glitches, glitches with regards to just the interface with the IEC system,” Ramaphosa said.
He said the ANC’s candidate lists had been submitted and that the problem was limited to certain areas.
“This time around, the error was in a limited sort of area. It’s not as wholesale as it was the last time. So I think it’s containable and it’s manageable and there should be a solution that can be found,” Ramaphosa said.
However, not all ANC members believe Mbalula should carry the blame alone.
One NEC member said the party as a whole should accept responsibility for leaving the submission until the deadline.
“If we had submitted the list in time, this excuse of a glitch would not have existed. If we claim the problem was on the IEC, we must prove it,” the member said.
A Mbalula supporter also defended him, arguing that the ANC’s electoral committee was led by party veteran Kgalema Motlanthe and that the secretary-general did not run the electoral process alone.
“The SG doesn’t run electoral processes. You can’t just blame someone because you don’t like him. You ask for a report first from the committee,” the supporter said.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party remained confident in its internal processes.
“The ANC is comfortable with all its internal processes and should there be any evidence of failures we ask anyone affected or with that evidence to come forward but we trust our processes because they’ve been stress-tested,” Bhengu said.
She also rejected claims that the lists had been improperly reopened after the NEC meeting.
“We are not aware of any reopening of the list except in cases that were condoned by the NEC. Anyone with evidence of that should bring it forward. I’m not aware of that as the spokesperson of the ANC.
“Any allegation of list manipulation is without facts. However, we call on anyone who has evidence of that to come forward,” she said.
Political Cost For ANC
The dispute has created an immediate organisational problem for the ANC, but its consequences could extend into the election campaign.
The party risks going to voters without candidates who were selected by its own structures and who may have strong local support.
In Alfred Nzo, party figures pointed to the omission of mayor Tsileng Sobuthongo, who was described by internal critics as popular with voters.
The concern is that the ANC could lose municipalities it might otherwise have retained or won because its candidate lists were incomplete.
The crisis also comes at a difficult time for the governing party, which is attempting to rebuild support ahead of the local elections while facing competition from the DA, MK Party and other opposition organisations.
The ANC’s explanation will now be tested in the Electoral Court.
The commission’s position is that the relevant names were captured but not finally submitted before the deadline. The ANC maintains that it completed the process but was affected by a technical problem.
Until the court decides whether the commission must reconsider the affected candidates, the party will remain under pressure from provincial structures, excluded candidates and NEC members who want someone to take responsibility.
For Mbalula, the dispute has become a direct challenge to his authority as secretary-general.
His supporters say the electoral committee and the party as a whole must be investigated before blame is assigned. His critics argue that the final responsibility for submitting the lists rested with him.
The Electoral Court appeal may decide more than the fate of several hundred candidates. It could also determine whether Mbalula emerges from the crisis with his position strengthened or facing a disciplinary challenge from within the ANC.
