Two ANC members lose court bid to overturn Eastern Cape candidate lists before November 4 vote

The Electoral Court has dismissed an application by two ANC members to overturn the party’s Eastern Cape candidate lists, clearing the way for those nominations to stand in the Local Government Elections on November 4.

Freedom Nkululeko Jojiyasi and Masande Mambulu brought the challenge, arguing that the party’s internal candidate-selection procedures had not been followed and that disputes and appeals over nominations had not been properly resolved. Judge Leicester Rock Adams, sitting with Shongwe AJ and Professor Phooko, dismissed the application. As Sunday World reported on 3 November, the court found the applicants had not established that the alleged irregularities materially undermined the selection process as a whole.

The applicants put two main complaints before the court. They said disputes affecting 24 wards remained unsettled, and that the Eastern Cape Provincial Executive Committee had failed to publish the approved party and ward candidate lists on the ANC website as the party’s candidate-selection guidelines require. That failure, they argued, denied members the chance to scrutinise the lists and lodge objections within the prescribed 48-hour window.

They asked the court to set aside the ANC National Executive Committee’s ratification of the lists, to block the registration of disputed candidates with the Electoral Commission of South Africa, and to order the party to produce revised lists.

The ANC denied the allegations. It said the lists had been published on a dedicated webpage, with controlled access meant to protect candidates’ personal information, and that member disputes had been handled through its internal processes. Secretary-general Fikile Mbalula pointed to complaints that had been investigated and resolved, including a dispute over the Ward 8 nomination in Matatiele, where the Provincial Lists Committee set aside the nomination process and ordered it repeated.

Adams held that the party’s version had to be accepted on the papers, and the application was therefore dismissed. The ruling is not a finding that every part of the ANC’s selection process was beyond criticism. It is a finding that the applicants did not prove the case needed to set the nominations aside.

The judgment also dealt with the election timetable. The applicants wanted relief that would have allowed the disputed lists to be revisited after the submission deadline. Adams made clear the IEC could not give a single political party an exemption from a statutory deadline that binds every party. The Municipal Electoral Act allows the timetable to be changed through a general amendment where necessary, but does not empower the IEC to grant one party an individual extension.

The court record also notes that questions were raised inside the ANC about changes to its Eastern Cape candidate list shortly before the submission deadline. A letter from Mbalula dated 9 September 2026 records that a forensic auditor had been appointed to investigate changes made to the provincial candidate list between 27 and 28 August. The judgment does not give the outcome of that investigation, so it is not clear from the court record what the audit found or whether anyone was held accountable for the changes.

The application was dismissed with no order as to costs.