JOHANNESBURG, Friday 4 September 2026 — The ANC’s dispute with the Electoral Commission over candidate submissions for the November local government elections extends across the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State, with reporting indicating that the party’s proportional-representation slate in Mangaung may be among the affected lists.
Business Day reported that at least three Eastern Cape municipalities, one KwaZulu-Natal municipality and one Free State municipality are affected by candidate submissions that were entered into the IEC’s online system but not formally completed before the 28 August deadline.
The Free State problem is believed to involve Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, while the KwaZulu-Natal issue may involve the proportional-representation list in uMshwathi Local Municipality.
The exact number of ANC candidates affected in each municipality has not yet been publicly confirmed by the IEC.
The development materially broadens what had initially appeared to be a more limited dispute over individual candidate submissions.
The IEC said this week that 2,274 prospective candidates belonging to 45 political parties were captured on its Online Candidate Nomination System but were not formally submitted before the deadline.
The ANC says its case is different from an attempt to lodge candidates after the deadline.
Party spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said all nine ANC provincial structures had uploaded their candidate information before 17:00 on 28 August, but that the system’s final electronic confirmation step failed for portions of the submissions.
The ANC says it wants the IEC to recognise information already stored on its system rather than allow new candidates to be added after nominations closed.
The IEC disputes the party’s description of events.
IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the nomination system remained operational during the deadline period and that candidates recorded as captured but not submitted had not completed the legally required submission process.
Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo has similarly said the commission received no report indicating that its system had failed on nomination day.
The commission has said it will not reopen nominations or extend the deadline.
That distinction could become decisive if the disagreement develops into litigation.
Candidate nominations in municipal elections are governed by statutory deadlines, and previous election cases have placed significant weight on equal application of those deadlines to competing parties.
The Mangaung element substantially raises the political stakes.
The ANC won an outright majority in Mangaung in the 2021 local government election and the Free State capital is one of only two metros where the party entered the current campaign governing without needing a coalition.
It now faces challenges from the DA, EFF, MK Party, BOSA and independent candidates.
MK has selected Mapaseka Mothibi as its Mangaung mayoral candidate, while the ANC has been considering several potential candidates for the mayoralty, including incumbent mayor Gregory Nthatisi and former mayor Thabo Manyoni.
An incomplete ANC PR list would therefore have consequences extending beyond individual candidates.
Proportional-representation seats make up a substantial component of municipal councils and are used together with ward results to determine overall party representation.
The Eastern Cape dispute also carries potential consequences because the ANC remains the dominant party in much of the province and is defending Buffalo City, while seeking to improve its position in the closely contested Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
Business Day reported that ANC Eastern Cape provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi has sought an accounting from the office of secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on the candidates submitted from the province.
The IEC has now entered the verification stage of the election timetable.
Between 4 and 25 September, the commission will conduct a series of statutory candidate-compliance processes, including requesting additional documentation where permitted.
The IEC may request documents from candidates from 4 September, with a 7 September deadline for supplying requested material. Notices concerning multiple nominations are due on 9 September, while the commission plans to publish the final candidate lists on 16 September.
Those processes do not necessarily provide a mechanism for adding candidates who were never legally submitted by the nomination deadline.
The status of the disputed ANC entries will therefore need to be resolved separately.
Until that happens, claims by either side about the cause of the failed submissions remain contested.
The next material development will be whether the IEC formally excludes the disputed candidates, accepts any of the ANC’s arguments during verification, or whether the party approaches the Electoral Court.
