Jonathan Erasmus
The ANC’s road to the 2026 local government elections is quickly unravelling as the fallout from devastating errors in the registration of candidates across the country turns the party against itself.
It has now been forced to discredit rumours that stalwart Frank Chikane is taking it to court over its alleged failure to register him as a candidate.
Weekend reports by the Sunday Times and News24, based on what they said was a leaked confidential report by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, showed a serious breakdown in the party’s candidate registration process ahead of the 4 November elections.
Meanwhile, controversial Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral candidate for the ANC, Andile Lungisa, who was also omitted from the lists submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), on Friday filed legal papers against the party over its failure to register him.
Lungisa, who has placed the blame firmly at Mbalula’s feet, went on the offensive on Sunday during an interview with Newzroom Afrika, claiming those who did not understand the “outcry” over his omission were “idiots”.
“I think we are dealing with people who have no clue, who have no history, who do not know Nelson Mandela [Bay Metro], and who are representing themselves,” Lungisa told the channel.
Mbalula’s leaked report, reportedly submitted to the ANC’s top seven officials and national working committee (NWC) last week, found that 51 recommended mayoral candidates, including anti-apartheid activist Chikane, were not submitted to the IEC.
The omissions have raised questions about whether internal factional battles within the party — rather than merely a technical glitch, as alleged by the ANC in papers filed with the Electoral Court last week — were behind the candidate registration chaos.
In Johannesburg for example, party insiders reportedly claimed regional structures resisted Chikane’s nomination as Johannesburg mayoral candidate in favour of regional chairperson Loyiso Masuku.
On Sunday evening, ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu issued a statement denying that Chikane was taking the party to court. While no such allegation had been reported by South African media at the time, Bhengu’s hand was likely forced by questions from journalists and growing internal rumours being fuelled by the registration scandal.
The party did not explain why it believed claims about Chikane taking it to court were circulating.
In the same statement, the party confirmed that Lungisa had taken legal action against it.
“The African National Congress (ANC) categorically rejects as false and without factual foundation reports claiming that Rev. Dr Frank Chikane has instituted legal proceedings against the ANC. Rev. Chikane has not taken the ANC to court. Attempts to manufacture a conflict between Rev. Chikane and the ANC are therefore both reckless and misleading,” Bhengu said.
The leaked report stated that several influential ANC candidates across the country had been omitted from the lists submitted to the IEC.
This is just one of many fronts the party is fighting over the registration of candidates for the election.
Last week, the ANC approached the Electoral Court to challenge the IEC’s refusal to recognise candidate nominations who were on the lists of six municipalities across the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal but whose nominations were not formally completed on time. The ANC claimed it was the fault of technical glitches on the IECs website, an allegation the IEC has denied.
Those omitted reportedly included Chikane; MP Soviet Lekganyane, who had been touted as Polokwane’s mayoral candidate; former KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube and KZN stalwart Maggie Govender, who were potential mayoral candidates for eThekwini; and all of the proposed nominees for the City of uMhlathuze, which includes Richards Bay.
Mbalula said that technical failures, administrative incompetence and reliance on single points of control resulted in the party’s failure to register key leadership candidates across Johannesburg, eThekwini, Cape Town, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Mangaung.
He said the party had failed in multiple areas — at branches, regional vetting panels, provincial list committees and executives, the Electoral Committee, national officials, the NEC, and his own office.
The affected names were drawn from 48 of the country’s 208 municipalities. Of the 206 people recommended for mayoral office across those municipalities, 51 reportedly appeared on neither a ward nor proportional representation list — 23 in metros and strategic cities and 28 in local municipalities.
Lungisa claimed in his court papers that Mbalula deliberately excluded him from the list of candidates.
“On a separate matter, the ANC confirms that legal representatives acting on behalf of Cde Andile Lungisa have served the organisation with legal papers. The ANC will respond appropriately through the prescribed legal processes. Given that the matter is now before the courts, the ANC will not litigate it through the media. The issues raised, together with the ANC’s response thereto, will be fully ventilated before the court,” Bhengu said.
In his interview with Newzroom Afrika on Sunday, the 47-year-old Lungisa accused ANC leaders of violating internal democracy by removing his name from the Nelson Mandela Bay candidate list despite his announcement as the party’s preferred mayoral candidate.
He said communities had “called” on him to stand.
“There is a huge outcry in Nelson Mandela [Bay Metro], about the state of condition when it comes to service delivery. Anyone is an idiot, is a coward if a person would say there is no outcry in Nelson Mandela Bay [about my exclusion],” Lungisa said.
He claimed ANC structures had properly endorsed him. “There can be no individualists either at the head office at Luthuli House, or from the provincial office … which can then change and move the name of individuals”.
He said he had exhausted the ANC’s internal remedies, including writing to the secretary-general on 31 August, before turning to the courts. Lungisa contended that his rights as an ANC member were “being violated” and that “the people shall govern”.
He reiterated his support for the ANC and maintained that he would continue campaigning for the party. He said he would ensure its manifesto was implemented if the ANC led the municipality after the 4 November election.
Mbalula did not address the registration crisis when he spoke at the 2026 General Conference of the United African Apostolic Church at Ha-Mavhunga Dzhelele in Limpopo on Sunday.
Instead, he said the party had to accept responsibility for the poor state of many municipalities and had, in response, “declared 2026 the year of decisive action to fix local government”.
He said that all mayors and councillors would sign publicly available performance agreements and “be removed” if they failed to meet their targets.
“Our own manifesto admits that only 39 of our 257 municipalities [countrywide] achieved clean audits last year, and not one of the eight metros. It admits that communities live with dry taps, burst pipes, sewer spills, potholes and bills nobody can explain. The ANC governs most of those councils. We must answer to that,” Mbalula said.
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