By Simon Nare
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula has revealed the party will announce its mayoral candidates for the upcoming local government elections towards the end of the month ahead of the election manifesto to be launched on the 23rd of August 2026 in Diepsloot outside Johannesburg.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the party’s special National Executive Committee meeting held at the Birchwood Conference Center in Boksburg outside Johannesburg to adopt its manifesto, Mbalula said the nomination process of mayoral candidates have been concluded.
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He said the announcement of the mayoral candidates was deliberately aligned to the manifesto launch and played down suggestions that the late launch could disadvantage its candidates in the race.
Mbalula boasted that the party will be fielding 10 000 candidates across the country and deposits for these candidates has already been paid as the party was gearing to contest the local government elections “wall to wall”.
Asked whether the party was not disadvantaging itself by announcing its mayoral candidates late when other parties had already done so and their candidates already campaigning, Mbalula said relies on the strength of President Cyril Ramaphosa as the face of its campaign.
“The campaign is ANC driven and the face of the campaign is President Cyril Ramaphosa. We can go into elections without mayoral candidates and elect them after the campaign won’t be hindered. The President is the face,” Mbalula said.’
Unlike other political parties, Mbalula said, the party has undergone a process where mayoral candidates went through a rigorous interview process and had been vetted after which the electorates will be asked through the ballot to give them a mandate for the next five years.
“This process also involves the councillor candidates, who are undergoing the same vetting and processes of the ANC. They have gone to community meetings. The ANC will field more than 10 000 candidates. This is the first time the ANC interviews and selects mayor candidates before the election,” he said.
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He added that the ANC had an obligation to account to society and defend its position, saying a manifesto was not drafted abstractly but informed by the material conditions on the ground and the response would be fix issues raised by communities.
Asked whether the ANC regarded the elections as a do or die due to its decreasing support at the polls, Mbalula said the party will be campaigning to avoid coalition governing. He said the party has noted all the polls that have predicted the upcoming elections but insisted for the ANC, voter turnout would be key.
“We see the polls to what they say but everything to us is gonna depend on the turnout on the day. If our people do not turn out in their numbers to vote, we know we will be affected. The beneficiaries will be the DA and the small political parties. We will be back in coalition government,” he said
