By Simon Nare
The ANC’s internal battle over its Eastern Cape local government candidate lists has escalated into multiple legal disputes, with provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi threatening to sue secretary-general Fikile Mbalula for defamation and accusing him of ordering Andile Lungisa’s removal from the Nelson Mandela Bay proportional representation list.
The allegation is contained in a letter sent by Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers to Mbalula on Thursday. Lungisa, an ANC national executive committee member, is separately challenging his removal from the candidate list in the Johannesburg High Court.
In another court battle, two ANC members filed a notice of motion in the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda on Thursday, seeking to have the party’s councillor and mayoral candidate lists set aside.
They argue that provisions of the ANC constitution and its candidate-selection procedures were bypassed during the nomination process, tainting the selection of ward and proportional representation candidates. The ANC’s own 2026 candidate-selection rules provide for branch participation and several stages of scrutiny and approval before candidates are finalised.
The legal battles come amid a growing dispute over responsibility for the ANC’s failure to complete the submission of some of its candidate lists before the Electoral Commission’s 28 August deadline.
An internal report by Mbalula said the Eastern Cape’s final candidate list reached the ANC’s national operations centre at 16:31 on deadline day, leaving 29 minutes before the IEC’s 17:00 cut-off. The report also raised concerns about changes allegedly made to lists after they had been approved by the party’s national leadership. Ngcukayitobi disputes allegations that he was responsible for the failures or improperly altered the lists.
On Thursday, Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers wrote to Mbalula demanding a retraction and apology, describing the claims against their client as false and defamatory and saying they were intended to carry “a defamatory innuendo”.
Ngcukayitobi, through his lawyers, instead accused Mbalula of conduct that contributed to the problems surrounding the candidate-list process.
“Such conducts include but are not limited to causing an illegal provincial conference to be convened in March 2026, illegally installing a so-called Provincial Task Team, sidelining the duly elected Provincial Executive Committee and the Provincial Secretary until the belated ‘reinstatement’ thereof only a few weeks before the Independent Electoral Commission deadlines,” said Ngcukayitobi.
He alleged that these actions contributed to candidate lists being submitted late or, in some instances, not being successfully submitted at all.
Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers also turned attention to Lungisa’s removal from the Nelson Mandela Bay PR list, alleging that Mbalula had personally given the instruction.
“Our client is only aware of (an) instance where you personally instructed in his presence, the alteration of the list, including, the removal of Mr Andile Lungisa’s name from the Proportional Representative list of the Nelson Mandela Bay. To our knowledge, our client is not responsible for the alteration of any list.”
Lungisa has made a similar claim in his own High Court proceedings, accusing Mbalula of ordering his removal despite his name having previously been approved through the ANC’s processes. His case is due to be heard in the Johannesburg High Court on 26 September. Mbalula has said he will deal with Lungisa’s allegations through the court process.
Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers have given Mbalula until noon on 22 September to issue a full and unconditional apology and retraction acceptable to both parties, failing which they say their client will institute defamation proceedings.
They also cautioned Mbalula against making further public comments about the dispute on ANC platforms “as has become characteristic” of him. They said further remarks could be relied on as an aggravating factor in any defamation case.
The internal fight follows the ANC’s defeat in the Electoral Court on Wednesday, when its appeal over 181 candidates in six municipalities was dismissed. Four of the six affected municipalities are in the Eastern Cape.
INSIDE POLITICS
