EAST LONDON, Tuesday 25 August 2026 — A group of African National Congress members in the Eastern Cape has begun legal action against the party over its process for selecting ward and proportional-representation candidates for the November local government elections, days before nominations close with the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
The members allege that parts of the ANC’s internal nomination process were not properly followed and that some branch general meetings required for candidate selection did not take place.
Their challenge comes as the ANC works to finalise thousands of ward and proportional-representation candidates nationally ahead of the IEC’s 17:00 deadline on Friday, 28 August. Late candidate submissions cannot be accepted under the published election timetable.
Lwazi Rotya, one of the members involved in the dispute, told SABC News that the group believed ward and proportional-representation lists had been manipulated and that internal attempts to resolve the matter had been exhausted.
Those allegations have not been tested in court, and no finding has been made that the ANC’s Eastern Cape candidate lists were manipulated or that fraud occurred.
Rotya said the group intended to pursue legal action concerning the provisional ward and proportional-representation lists while remaining open to discussions with the party leadership.
The dispute adds another layer of pressure to the ANC’s candidate-selection process.
The party’s National Executive Committee was meeting on Tuesday to consider and approve final candidate lists before their submission to the IEC. The ANC is processing more than 6,000 proportional-representation candidates alongside thousands of ward candidates nationally.
The ANC has also faced separate disputes over candidate eligibility, including requests by provincial structures for exemptions from the party’s matric requirement.
The party’s Electoral Committee, chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, rejected those waiver requests and required affected candidates to sign undertakings to obtain a matric or equivalent NQF Level 4 qualification within a year of becoming councillors if elected.
The Eastern Cape dispute is separate from an earlier court battle involving the structure of the ANC’s provincial leadership.
The party has petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal following an Eastern Cape High Court judgment concerning the establishment of its provincial task team.
The latest challenge, however, concerns the candidate lists that will determine who represents the ANC in ward contests and on proportional-representation ballots in the 4 November municipal elections.
Any court intervention before Friday could affect the party’s preparations in the province, although the precise relief being sought by the disgruntled members has not yet been publicly detailed.
The immediate question is whether the dispute can be resolved internally or through the courts before the IEC closes candidate nominations at 17:00 on 28 August.
