DURBAN, Saturday 26 September 2026 — The Abantu Batho Congress has asked the Electoral Court to disqualify 11 of its serving KwaZulu-Natal councillors who have been certified as candidates for rival political parties in the 4 November local government elections, opening a potentially significant dispute over party-switching before voters go to the polls.
The ABC says the councillors remain legally protected in their existing municipal positions by earlier court orders preventing the party from expelling or replacing them, while some have now appeared on Electoral Commission candidate lists for the IFP, MK Party and another party.
It wants the Electoral Court to either invalidate their registration as candidates for the rival parties or recognise that their decision to stand elsewhere has terminated their ABC membership and consequently their existing council seats.
The case is significant because it involves serving councillors crossing political lines immediately before a municipal election while retaining the salaries, allowances and institutional positions attached to seats originally secured through another party.
It could also require the Electoral Court to address the interaction between earlier court protection for councillors in an internal party dispute and their subsequent decision to contest an election for different political organisations.
ABC says councillors remain protected from removal
The dispute has its origins in a prolonged internal conflict within the ABC.
The party previously attempted to remove some of the councillors, but they successfully approached the courts and obtained orders restoring them and preventing the party from removing or replacing them.
Those orders remain in force, according to court papers described in reporting by IOL’s Daily News and The National.
ABC president Philani Mavundla now argues that circumstances have materially changed.
The councillors are still occupying seats associated with the ABC but have subsequently been registered to contest the November election for rival parties.
Mavundla says the ABC cannot remove them because of the existing court orders, while their rival-party candidacies effectively allow them to campaign against the organisation whose council seats they continue to occupy.
Eleven councillors at centre of application
The ABC’s Electoral Court papers identify 11 councillors across KwaZulu-Natal municipalities.
According to The National, the IFP and MK Party are among the political organisations for which the affected councillors have been registered as candidates.
The ABC has cited the IEC, affected municipalities, councillors and political parties in its application.
The party argues that the IEC acted unlawfully by accepting the councillors as candidates for other parties while knowing that litigation over their ABC membership and council seats remained unresolved.
That remains the ABC’s allegation.
The Electoral Court has not yet ruled on whether the councillors’ registrations are unlawful.
Mavundla demands choice between existing seats and new parties
Mavundla says the councillors should not be able to rely on court orders protecting their existing ABC positions while simultaneously seeking election under another political banner.
“They must either remove the legal order preventing us from acting, or they must return to the ABC,” he told Daily News.
The ABC argues that standing as a candidate for another political party should be treated as terminating membership of the party through which the councillor currently holds office.
It consequently wants the affected council seats declared vacant if the rival-party candidacies remain valid.
The party is alternatively seeking orders preventing municipalities from continuing to pay the councillors.
Salaries form part of ABC challenge
The financial consequences are an important component of the application.
Current municipal councillors are expected to remain in office until the newly elected councils are constituted after the November election.
The ABC says this creates a situation in which affected councillors could continue receiving municipal salaries, allowances and other benefits attached to their existing ABC positions while campaigning for competing parties.
Its court papers argue that those resources effectively assist political campaigns directed against the ABC.
The party has therefore asked for municipal payments to the affected councillors to stop if they continue as candidates for other parties.
Whether the Electoral Court has jurisdiction to grant all of the relief sought, and whether the earlier court orders affect the available remedies, will be questions for the court.
Dispute exposes unusual consequence of pre-election party switching
South Africa does not permit elected councillors to retain their seats through conventional floor-crossing.
A proportional-representation councillor normally occupies a seat allocated to a political party rather than one won personally.
Party membership is consequently central to continued occupancy of a PR seat.
The ABC case is unusual because the affected councillors’ continued membership and seats are protected by court orders arising from the party’s earlier attempts to remove them.
The ABC now argues that the councillors themselves have created a fundamentally different situation by voluntarily accepting candidacy for competing organisations.
The court will have to consider that argument against the precise terms of the existing orders and the electoral legislation governing candidate eligibility.
Dispute arrives after final candidate certification
The timing makes the litigation particularly important.
The IEC published the final candidate lists on 16 September and successful candidates were due to receive certificates confirming their compliance with nomination requirements on 25 September.
The election is scheduled for 4 November 2026.
The ABC says it contacted the IEC after identifying its councillors on rival candidate lists and requested their removal.
The Commission has declined to comment substantively because the dispute is before court.
“The process should be allowed to unfold in court,” the IEC told Daily News.
Case could matter beyond the ABC
The immediate dispute involves a relatively small political party, but the legal question has broader electoral relevance.
Candidate movement between parties has become a notable feature of the 2026 municipal election.
EWN reported this week that hundreds of candidates on the certified lists have previously represented other political parties.
Changing political affiliation before an election is not itself unusual or necessarily unlawful.
The ABC case presents a narrower question: whether a serving councillor can continue occupying a seat associated with one party — particularly under the protection of a court order — while formally becoming an election candidate for another.
A ruling could therefore provide guidance for political parties, municipalities and the IEC when similar disputes arise.
KwaZulu-Natal remains highly competitive
The dispute also comes during an unusually competitive election campaign in KwaZulu-Natal.
The province’s political landscape changed substantially in the 2024 national and provincial elections after the MK Party displaced the ANC as the largest party provincially.
Municipal contests now involve the MK Party, IFP, ANC and smaller organisations competing across councils where relatively small shifts in representation can determine governing arrangements.
That increases the significance of councillor movements between parties.
Experienced municipal politicians bring local networks, organisational knowledge and established voter relationships with them when they switch allegiance.
For smaller parties such as the ABC, losing several incumbent councillors simultaneously can materially weaken organisation before an election.
Electoral Court ruling now awaited
No hearing date was publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed by early Saturday.
Mavundla said he expected the matter to be determined soon.
The compressed election timetable means prolonged litigation could itself create uncertainty because ballot preparation has already begun.
The IEC has moved into ballot-production preparations following the national ballot draw and publication of final candidate lists.
The court will therefore be dealing with a dispute involving candidates whose nominations have already passed through the Commission’s certification process.
Until judgment is delivered, the 11 councillors remain candidates on the certified lists identified by the ABC.
The party’s allegations that their registration is unlawful have not yet been upheld.
The Electoral Court will now determine whether their existing council status and their new political candidacies can legally coexist — or whether the councillors must relinquish one before the November election.
