---
title: "An ANC candidate list blunder could cost the party in the Eastern Cape"
description: "A technical submission dispute could shut the ANC out of two Eastern Cape strongholds and cut its PR representation in four councils unless the Electoral Court intervenes."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "LOCAL ELECTIONS 2026"
author: "Lunga Simelane"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/lunga-simelane/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-09-mbalula-defends-ancs-candidate-list-blunder-as-electoral-court-battle-looms/"
published: "2026-09-09T09:03:35"
updated: "2026-09-09T09:57:12"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 1801
---

# An ANC candidate list blunder could cost the party in the Eastern Cape

> A technical submission dispute could shut the ANC out of two Eastern Cape strongholds and cut its PR representation in four councils unless the Electoral Court intervenes.

By Lunga Simelane · Published 9 September 2026, 11:03 SAST · Updated 9 September 2026, 11:57 SAST

## Key points
- Technical submission error: ANC administrators did not complete the final electronic step before the IEC 5pm deadline, resulting in 181 affected candidates being rejected.
- Political risk: the party could be entirely excluded from ballots in Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns and lose PR representation in Mangaung, uMshathi, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley.
- Legal fight: the ANC has appealed to the Electoral Court, arguing uploaded candidate data before the deadline amounts to lawful submission; the IEC maintains the system worked and won’t accept late entries.
- Accountability and fixes: SG Fikile Mbalula says responsibility is collective; the ANC plans internal reviews, a forensic probe in the Eastern Cape and tighter submission procedures.

## Content

![LGE-2026-logo-signpost](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/rpEszg8fLXzJqIfC5WtHSTiDXA4=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Election2026LogoInarticle_260133.jpg)

The ANC faces complete exclusion from the ballot in two municipalities and the loss of major representation in four others if the [Electoral Court](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Court_of_South_Africa) upholds the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC’s) [rejection of 181 of the party’s candidates](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-04-anc-list-glitches-are-containable-but-partys-considering-court-action-says-ramaphosa/) for the 4 November local government elections.

The party’s appeal hinges on arguing that candidate details uploaded to the system before the 28 August deadline should be deemed validly submitted, even if final administrative submission steps were incomplete when the portal closed.

The political consequences of losing the case could extend far beyond the party’s immediate embarrassment over the failed submission.

Of the six municipalities affected, Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape are the most severely hit, with both the ANC’s ward and proportional representation (PR) candidates omitted.

In the other four – Mangaung in the Free State, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal, and Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape – the ANC’s ward candidates remain on the ballot, but its PR lists are in dispute.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula on Tuesday, 8 September, acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, but rejected the idea that one individual should be held responsible for the failure, despite the party facing a risk of losing candidates in six of the country’s 257 councils.

“That is a serious loss, and I will not minimise it. But it is not the loss that has been described. So, when I am asked who is to blame, I give you the collective answer, and I give it without hesitation,” said Mbalula.

![ANC Ward Representatives Picket Outside Luthuli House](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/SZYP9Xh9909kr5MVuHnBUO1qF5Q=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/ANC-candidatelist-Mbalula12_858559.jpg)

*ANC ward representatives picket outside Luthuli House in Johannesburg during the official media briefing on submission of councillor candidates for the 2026 local government elections. (Photo: Sharon Seretlo / Gallo Images)*

Mbalula argued that the impact had been blown out of proportion as the party had successfully registered 97% of its ward candidates and 90% of its PR candidates nationally.

In total, the ANC registered 8,947 councillor candidates nationally, of which 4,366 are ward candidates, and 4,581 are PR candidates.

Out of the 181 affected candidates, 130 are on PR lists, and 51 are ward candidates whose details had been captured on the IEC’s system on 28 August but had not completed the final electronic step before the 5pm deadline.

### Two municipalities at risk

The stakes are particularly high in Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns, where the ANC faces the prospect of having no candidates on either ballot if its court application fails. The two municipalities are longstanding ANC strongholds.

In the 2021 local government elections, the ANC won 46 of 64 seats in [Ingquza Hill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingquza_Hill_Local_Municipality_elections), giving it a commanding majority. It won 28 ward seats and 18 PR seats.

In Port St Johns, the party won 31 of 39 seats, including all 20 ward seats and 11 PR seats.

Failure to secure candidate registration in those two municipalities would leave the party completely unable to contest historically dominant strongholds.

Mbalula acknowledged that the impact varies across the six affected councils.

“In Mangaung, in uMshwathi, in Walter Sisulu and in Sundays River Valley, the movement’s full slate of ward candidates is on the ballot today,” he said. “In those four, it is the proportional list that is in dispute. It is only in Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns that both ballots are affected.”

![ANC Briefs The Media On Submission Of Councillor Candidates For The 2026 LGE](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/16WIcaLyQRtKr0XVwzhNQpC2jHA=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/ANC-candidatelist-Mbalula_182260.jpg)

*ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula briefs the media on 8 September. (Photo: Sharon Seretlo / Gallo Images)*

The other four municipalities are not facing the same complete exclusion, but the loss of PR lists could still significantly reduce the ANC’s representation.

In 2021, the ANC won 51 of Mangaung’s 101 council seats, including 40 ward seats and 11 PR seats. In uMshwathi, it won 16 of 27 seats, with 14 coming from wards and two from its PR list.

In Walter Sisulu, the ANC won 12 of 22 seats, nine ward and three PR, while in Sundays River Valley it won 10 of 16, comprising seven ward and three PR seats.

[Media: "Chart: ANC risks total council exclusion in two Eastern Cape municipalities if court bid fails"](https://charts.dailymaverick.co.za/chart/c6c2b57b4d4a44e606f896e8)

### The legal fight

In its appeal to the Electoral Court, the ANC argues that its lists and ward nominations had already been uploaded onto the IEC’s Online Candidate Nomination System before the 5pm deadline on 28 August.

The party is now asking the Electoral Court to overturn the IEC decision and declare that its lists in the six municipalities were submitted lawfully and on time.

[Read more

Ramaphosa defends ANC’s late election candidate lists as party considers court action

September 4, 2026 ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/3UwgW2MfukL9l0rkpoFFPjYzmBs=/450x0/smart/file/attachments/orphans/Tumi-Lunga-CR6_968867.jpg)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-04-anc-list-glitches-are-containable-but-partys-considering-court-action-says-ramaphosa/)

According to the ANC’s court papers, the party had completed the required forms and uploaded all supporting documents for the six affected municipalities before the deadline. It says the system had received all the required information but technical difficulties prevented its administrators from completing the final electronic step.

The ANC says that at 4.34pm on deadline day, its administrators were logged out of the system and returned to the landing page. It says the problem was reported to an IEC official at 4.35, before the officials were again logged out at 4.57.

Mbalula said the ANC’s position was that the candidate information itself was already on the IEC’s system before 5pm, with the commission’s own reports for the six affected councils subsequently printed from that information.

The party argues that treating those candidates as though they had never been submitted would undermine the purpose of the legislation and effectively allow the IEC’s software to determine whether a statutory submission had occurred.

See the ANC’s court papers here:

[Media](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/attachments/2997/leaveappealANC_529218.pdf)

The Electoral Court will have to decide whether that interpretation is correct.

“There is not a single name the ANC wishes to enter into the commission’s system anew. All the names are inside the system as we speak,” said Mbalula.

He said the ANC wanted the IEC to process the candidate information its own system had already received and stored before the deadline.

The ANC had previously described the problem as a “glitch”, but Mbalula said the party had experienced difficulties and preferred to let the commission’s system records and its account of what happened speak for themselves.

Whether that information amounts to a legally valid submission, he said, is for the Electoral Court to decide.

![ANC Briefs The Media On Submission Of Councillor Candidates For The 2026 LGE](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/_bFydywvvYt4kG5P1AFkWU9O5wE=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/ANC-candidatelist-Mbalula6_362504.jpg)

*A visual presentation at the media briefing at Luthuli House on 8 September. (Photo: Sharon Seretlo / Gallo Images)*

The ANC’s legal argument focused largely on the meaning of the word “submitted” in sections 14 and 17 of the Municipal Electoral Act. The ANC argues that the law provides for electronic submission and that uploading the required information and documents to the IEC system before the deadline amounted to a submission.

It further argues that the distinction between information being “captured” and “submitted as final” is a feature of the IEC’s software rather than a requirement created by legislation or regulations.

The party argues that its interpretation is also supported by the [Electronic Communications and Transactions Act](https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a25-02.pdf), which it says recognises the delivery of electronic data to a designated information system as the electronic equivalent of handing documents to an official.

The IEC has rejected claims that its system malfunctioned, saying the platform operated as designed and that political parties had been given access to it since June. It’s also been adamant that it won’t accommodate parties that made late submissions.

The IEC said about 2,274 candidates from 45 political parties were captured on the system but not finally submitted before the 5pm deadline, legally disqualifying them from the election.

The proportional representation list omissions include key party figures vying for major metro mayoralties, such as ANC veteran Frank Chikane in Johannesburg, Deputy Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nocawe Mafu in Buffalo City, and former ANCYL deputy president Andile Lungisa in Nelson Mandela Bay.

### UDF case

The ANC’s application comes days after the Electoral Court [dismissed an application](https://www.polity.org.za/article/court-shuts-down-udfs-bid-to-get-iec-to-extend-candidate-nomination-deadline-2026-09-07) by the United Democratic Front Party (UDF), which had sought relief allowing it to submit ward candidates after the 28 August deadline.

Mbalula, however, argued their case was different, as the ANC was not asking for an extension or exemption.

“And to those who have warned the commission against giving the ANC ‘preferential treatment’, I say plainly the ANC has none,” said Mbalula. “We have never asked for an exemption. We have never asked for an extension. We are not asking for one now.”

He also stressed that the ANC wants any relief to apply equally to the other affected parties.

“If the ANC succeeds, 2,093 candidates who are not ours succeed with us,” he said.

See the UDF ruling here:

[Media](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/attachments/2997/4_853034.pdf)

### ‘Scandalous’ incident

While the ANC is fighting the IEC in court, the party is also facing questions over how the blunder happened in the first place.

Several ANC leaders have raised concerns about the failure, with NEC member Mondli Gungubele describing the incident as a “scandalous” failure of leadership.

“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 on social media.

However, Mbalula said an internal report received by the ANC’s national officials had identified 252 incorrect identity numbers in the party’s records and found that its own Electoral Committee had warned about the problem as far back as June.

The report traced the process through nine stages, involving multiple ANC structures.

“This was a process of nine stages and eight of them are collective structures, the National Executive Committee among them. I approved these lists for lodgement, in front of witnesses, with conditions, and I stand by that approval.”

He added: “There is no one person at the end of this story, and a movement that goes looking for one that has not held anybody accountable.”

Mbalula said accountability would instead follow the party’s internal processes.

“Accountability in the African National Congress follows a report through the structures. It does not follow a weekend news cycle,” he said.

He said the report would be considered by the relevant ANC structures before any decisions were taken.

Mbalula also pushed back against suggestions of deliberate wrongdoing, saying anyone with evidence should bring it forward.

“If you hold evidence, the movement’s structures are open to receive it, and I will act on it,” he said.

The ANC has also begun working on changes to its candidate-list process, including bringing forward an internal deadline by seven days, improving verification of identity numbers against the National Population Register and increasing the number of accredited users on the IEC’s system.

The party’s handling of the Eastern Cape list is also under forensic review, with Mbalula saying the Provincial Executive Committee will have to account for any changes made and explain who made them and why. **DM**

[Media on Daily Maverick: "Elections 2026"](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-09-mbalula-defends-ancs-candidate-list-blunder-as-electoral-court-battle-looms/)