JOHANNESBURG, Sunday 30 August 2026 — The ANC removed more than 350 prospective councillor candidates during its final vetting process before submitting its lists for the 4 November local government elections, with criminal records and failures to meet the party’s qualification requirements among the reasons for disqualification.
The scale of the removals is a material development from the qualification rules previously announced by the party and comes after the ANC completed its candidate submissions to the Electoral Commission of South Africa ahead of Friday’s deadline.
Cyril Ramaphosa defended the vetting process during the ANC’s weekend campaigning in Gauteng, according to News24, after more than 350 prospective candidates were excluded.
The removals mean the party’s stricter candidate-selection rules have now resulted in hundreds of prospective representatives being prevented from reaching the ballot rather than serving only as an internal screening mechanism.
The African National Congress adopted tougher eligibility rules for the 2026 municipal election in November last year.
Under those rules, candidates are generally required to hold a matric qualification, complete four OR Tambo Leadership School modules and be ANC members in good standing.
The rules also disqualify prospective candidates who have criminal records or criminal charges brought by the National Prosecuting Authority, subject to limited exclusions relating to political offences committed before April 1994.
Members suspended pending court or disciplinary proceedings are also ineligible, as are certain members affected by disciplinary or Integrity Commission findings.
The ANC Electoral Committee, chaired by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, had already confronted one of the most contentious requirements last week when provincial structures requested waivers for prospective councillors without matric.
The committee rejected the requested waivers but created a conditional route allowing affected candidates to remain if they signed undertakings to obtain matric or another accredited NQF Level 4 qualification within 12 months of becoming councillors.
Candidates who failed to submit those undertakings by 17:00 on 25 August were required to be removed and replaced.
Mzansi Political Safari previously reported that requirement when the Electoral Committee issued the deadline.
The latest development is therefore not the introduction of the matric rule but the outcome of the ANC’s broader vetting exercise: more than 350 prospective candidates ultimately failed to survive the party’s final screening.
That number is politically significant because the ANC is mounting what it describes as a “wall-to-wall” campaign across South Africa.
Party spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said last week that the ANC intended fielding 4,488 ward candidates and about 6,000 proportional-representation candidates before its final lists were ratified.
Removing hundreds of prospective candidates at the end of that process required replacements to be found while the party was racing against the IEC’s fixed nomination deadline.
The IEC had given political parties and independent candidates until 17:00 on Friday, 28 August, to complete their nominations.
Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said before the deadline that parties would not ordinarily be able to correct or amend their submissions afterwards, except in circumstances involving candidate disqualification.
The final vetting also carries consequences for ANC branches where preferred candidates were excluded.
Candidate selection has historically been a source of internal disputes in the party, particularly when branch-supported nominees are removed or repositioned before an election.
Those tensions were visible in Mangaung on Sunday, where ANC members protested over disputed ward-candidate selections during the party’s Free State manifesto launch.
First deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane told protesters that the candidate process had been concluded while saying the party would continue communicating with dissatisfied members.
The removal of more than 350 prospective candidates therefore creates two tests for the ANC.
The first is whether its new eligibility requirements produce the higher standard of municipal representation promised by the party’s leadership.
The second is whether branches accept replacement candidates and continue campaigning for the ANC where their preferred nominees were disqualified.
The issue is particularly important in closely contested municipalities.
The ANC is seeking to improve its position in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni while defending its position against the MK Party and other opposition parties in eThekwini and municipalities across KwaZulu-Natal.
In councils where only a small number of seats separate competing coalition combinations, disruption to an individual ward campaign can carry consequences beyond that ward.
The ANC’s rules state that the candidate-selection process is intended to produce councillors and municipal office-bearers with the skills and experience necessary to perform executive and oversight responsibilities.
They also explicitly link candidate eligibility to integrity requirements, education and organisational standing.
The IEC will now scrutinise the candidate submissions received from the ANC and other contestants.
Publication of the commission’s verified candidate lists will provide the next opportunity to establish who ultimately survived the parties’ internal selection processes and who will appear on municipal ballots on 4 November.
For the ANC, the removal of more than 350 prospective councillors represents the first large-scale test of whether the stricter standards it announced last year will materially change the people it puts before voters.
