ANC blames its own lists and conferences as vote count points to about 30%

The ANC’s own candidate lists and its internal conferences cost the party campaign time in the run-up to the November 4 local government elections, the party’s deputy secretary-general said at the national results operation centre in Midrand, Johannesburg, as counting continued.

Nomvula Mokonyane pointed to the delay in the list process, which she said affected the timeframe for canvassing and going out to voters, and to party conferences that overlapped with the campaign. “These are lessons to be learnt,” she said.

As Sunday World reported on 5 November, Mokonyane argued that the ANC’s internal conferences should have been shelved to give the local government campaign room. She was speaking against an emerging picture of steady ANC decline, with the CSIR projecting the party at about 30% of the national vote once counting is complete.

The list process was not smooth. For the first time since the ANC adopted the policy of naming mayoral candidates, it went into these elections with shortlisted candidates for each metro rather than a single announced candidate, and some names came off the list on submission day. Andile Lungisa of Nelson Mandela Bay went to court and won reinstatement to the list.

The party also went to the electoral court after the IEC refused to admit 181 of its candidates on late submission grounds. The ANC lost there and appealed to the apex court, where it won on the eve of the elections.

Its internal conferences added to the strain. The Eastern Cape provincial conference was interdicted in March and the party was effectively leaderless in the province for six months, and an attempt to appoint a provincial task team was taken to judicial review.

Mokonyane rejected the idea that the ANC is finished. She compared its position to that of Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and said renewal was under way, pointing to the campaign’s focus on individual voters. “The ANC is as yet to be condemned,” she said, arguing that the picture now differs from 2024. She said the party was open to talks with anyone within its principles.

For voters in the metros, the immediate question is who will run their councils and with whom. Coalition talks follow the count, and the CSIR projection is a forecast rather than a result until the IEC completes its tally.