ALIWAL NORTH, Wednesday 26 August 2026 — The ANC is facing another candidate-list dispute in the Eastern Cape after members in the Joe Gqabi region demanded that the party halt its proportional-representation list process and investigate allegations that a senior councillor was improperly excluded, two days before the deadline for election nominations.
Members of the ANC’s Boyce Nondala branch have petitioned the party’s provincial leadership over the exclusion of Aphiwe Skoti, a Joe Gqabi District Municipality councillor and senior regional party member, from its candidate list for the 4 November local government elections.
The branch has asked ANC Eastern Cape provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi and the provincial list committee to stop the Joe Gqabi list process while the matter is investigated.
It alleges that regional secretary Vikita Dontsa manipulated the proportional-representation list to exclude Skoti because of a personal dispute.
Those allegations have not been independently established, and no finding has been made that Dontsa manipulated the list.
The branch wants Skoti reinstated and has also called for disciplinary action against Dontsa.
Skoti has held positions in several ANC structures, including the party’s regional executive committee, Women’s League and Youth League, and is described by her branch as the acting chief whip in the Joe Gqabi district council.
She also holds a diploma in public management.
Skoti previously appeared on the ANC’s proportional-representation list for Joe Gqabi in the 2021 local government elections, when she was placed sixth on the party’s certified list.
The dispute comes at a particularly sensitive point in the election timetable.
Political parties and independent candidates have until 17:00 on Friday, 28 August to submit their final nominations to the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo has said parties may make corrections while preparing their submissions but will not be permitted to change or correct candidate lists after the deadline, except where a candidate is subsequently disqualified.
The Joe Gqabi complaint is the latest in a growing series of disputes involving the African National Congress candidate-selection process in the Eastern Cape.
ANC members in Buffalo City have separately threatened legal action over allegations that branch nomination processes were bypassed and that candidates supported through local structures were removed from lists.
The ANC has confirmed receiving correspondence from lawyers representing the Buffalo City members but has said its inability to provide a substantive response should not be interpreted as accepting their allegations.
That dispute carries particular electoral significance because Buffalo City is one of South Africa’s eight metropolitan municipalities.
The accumulation of complaints across the Eastern Cape nevertheless creates a broader organisational challenge for the ANC as it attempts to complete candidate registration nationally before Friday’s deadline.
The party’s National Executive Committee has also been considering its mayoral selections this week, although the ANC has said the names of its final mayoral candidates will only be publicly announced in September.
Secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on Wednesday that the party remained confident its final councillor lists would be submitted to the IEC on time.
Unlike the Buffalo City dispute, the Joe Gqabi complaint has not yet developed into a court challenge.
Its immediate significance lies in the demand that the party halt a regional list process at a point when the IEC has made clear that Friday’s nomination deadline will not ordinarily be extended.
The ANC’s provincial structures will therefore have to decide whether to intervene in the disputed list without jeopardising the party’s ability to register its candidates before nominations close.
