JOHANNESBURG, Tuesday 29 September 2026 — The ANC has decided that mayoral hopefuls omitted from its final Electoral Commission candidate lists can remain in contention for mayoral office, with the party planning to place qualifying nominees into councils through proportional-representation list augmentation after the 4 November local government elections.
The decision materially changes the position of several senior ANC figures whose absence from the certified lists had appeared to prevent them from becoming councillors — a prerequisite for election as a mayor.
They include Andile Lungisa in Nelson Mandela Bay, Simphiwe Dzengwa and Nocawe Mafu in Buffalo City and Nkosi Mandla Mandela in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality.
According to correspondence from ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula dated 26 September and reported by the Daily Dispatch on Tuesday, the party’s National Working Committee resolved that nominees already shortlisted and interviewed for mayoral positions would not automatically be excluded from consideration because their names were absent from the lists submitted to the IEC.
Mbalula told provincial and regional structures that cases involving a small number of omitted nominees would be addressed by augmenting PR lists after councils have held their first sittings.
The process would take place under the direction and with the concurrence of the ANC’s national officials.
Buffalo City mayoral contest remains open
The decision is particularly consequential in Buffalo City, where Dzengwa and Mafu were among ANC figures interviewed for the mayoralty but were absent from the final PR list.
Dzengwa told the Daily Dispatch that four candidates had been interviewed for the Buffalo City position and said he understood the NWC decision to mean that all remained in contention.
The ANC has governed Buffalo City with a majority during the current term, but the metro has emerged as a significant battleground ahead of the November election.
The party’s eventual mayoral selection will therefore take place only after voters determine the composition of the new council.
Mbalula’s correspondence states that the ANC’s national officials, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, will determine mayoral, speaker and chief-whip selections in municipalities subject to the party’s centralised process after election results are known.
Lungisa remains in Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral race
The NWC decision also provides a political route back into contention for former Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Andile Lungisa.
Lungisa had challenged his omission from the ANC candidate list in court and had publicly disputed the process that resulted in his name being excluded.
He welcomed the NWC decision, describing his exclusion as part of internal political contestation.
The new arrangement does not immediately place Lungisa on the ballot or on the certified candidate list.
Instead, the ANC intends to use the post-election PR-list process if it decides that an omitted nominee should enter a council.
That distinction is important because the party has separately been involved in litigation over candidate lists it failed to submit to the IEC before the nomination deadline.
The Electoral Court has already rejected an ANC application seeking the inclusion of candidates whose nominations were not submitted within the prescribed period.
The NWC’s latest plan therefore does not alter the IEC’s certified lists for election day.
ANC says national leadership will choose mayors after results
The decision also clarifies the ANC’s broader approach to selecting municipal leadership.
Mbalula told party structures that national officials would determine who becomes mayor, speaker and chief whip in municipalities covered by the centralised selection process only after election results are announced.
That means being publicly identified or interviewed as a mayoral candidate does not guarantee appointment.
Candidates would first need a route into the relevant council, while the ANC would need sufficient representation — either independently or through coalition arrangements — to elect its preferred leadership.
Mbalula instructed those who had been interviewed or publicly identified as potential mayors to remain involved in the final stage of the election campaign.
Candidate-list crisis remains separate
The arrangement does not resolve the ANC’s wider candidate-list difficulties.
The party failed to submit almost 200 ward and PR candidates on time in several municipalities, including Port St Johns and Ingquza Hill, and failed to submit PR candidates in Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley municipalities.
The IEC has maintained that nomination deadlines must be applied consistently.
The ANC has argued that technical difficulties affected some submissions and has pursued legal remedies over the dispute.
Tuesday’s development instead addresses a narrower internal problem: people whom the ANC itself considered for senior municipal office but whose names did not appear on the final lists.
For Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City in particular, it means the ANC’s eventual mayoral choice cannot be inferred solely from the names appearing on the IEC’s current certified PR lists.
The final decision will depend on the election result, the composition of each council and subsequent decisions by the ANC’s national leadership.
