Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero’s prospects of leading the ANC’s campaign in South Africa’s economic hub have suffered a major setback after he was left off the party’s regional shortlist for mayoral candidates ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

The ANC’s Greater Johannesburg regional executive committee (REC) met on Monday to finalise the names to be forwarded to the party’s national leadership, which will make the final decision on mayoral candidates for metros and secondary cities.

According to reports, the region submitted the names of newly elected regional chairperson and recently appointed deputy executive mayor Loyiso Masuku, former deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi and regional secretary Makhosazana Ndlela.

Morero, who lost the ANC Johannesburg regional chairperson contest to Masuku at the party’s December regional conference, did not make the shortlist.

Reports said Masuku topped the regional ballot with 24 votes, while Moleketi and Ndlela each received 23 votes. Morero reportedly failed to secure a single vote from the 28-member REC.

The ANC is still finalising its candidate for Johannesburg while rival parties have already begun campaigning in the hotly contested metro. The DA has announced former party leader Helen Zille as its Johannesburg mayoral candidate, while ActionSA leader and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba is also campaigning for the position.

The 2026 local government elections are scheduled for 4 November.

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The Electoral Commission (IEC) said turnout for voter registration was stronger at the start of Sunday than it had been on Saturday, as the country’s two-day registration weekend ended ahead of the 4 November local government elections.

The commission said activity on the second day remained solid despite bad weather in some areas, with KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape recording the highest levels of registration activity, followed by Gauteng and Limpopo.

Most voters still chose to register in person, with the IEC saying more than 90% of applications over the weekend were handled at voting stations rather than through online channels.

IEC chief executive Sy Mamabolo said the online registration platform would continue operating after the weekend.

“Online registration remains available beyond the weekend as an additional modality of registration. The Electoral Commission will announce the outcome of the voter registration weekend on Monday,” Mamabolo said.

The registration drive saw 23,706 voting stations opened across the country from 8am to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday. The IEC had urged voters to confirm that they were registered in the correct voting district, a key requirement in municipal elections.

Ahead of the registration weekend, Mamabolo said the voters’ roll stood at 28 million, compared with 27.7 million voters recorded during the 2024 national and provincial elections.

He said the roll continued to be updated monthly, including the removal of about 34,000 deceased voters each month.

The IEC said on Saturday that the campaign had opened positively, with more than 330,000 registration applications processed by midday on the first day, most of them through voter management devices at voting stations.

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ANC ward councillor Sicelo Mleve was shot dead in Gqeberha on Saturday evening, becoming the second political party representative killed during the voter registration weekend.

Mleve, 45, was the Ward 27 councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay and a member of the ANC’s Nelson Mandela Regional Executive Committee.

Police said two armed men entered his office in Zwide while a meeting of about 10 people was under way at about 6.50pm. The attackers allegedly held those present at gunpoint, demanded their cellphones, and one of them opened fire on Mleve before fleeing.

Mleve was declared dead at the scene. Police have launched a manhunt for two suspects.

The ANC said it was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the murder.

“Comrade Mleve was killed on the evening of 20 June 2026 while serving the people of his community,” the party said.

“His untimely death deprives the movement and the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay of a dedicated public representative committed to advancing the interests of the community he served.”

The killing came on the first day of the Electoral Commission’s voter registration weekend ahead of the November 4 local government elections. Voting stations were open across the country on Saturday and Sunday for voters to register, update their details or confirm their voting stations.

In the Western Cape, Democratic Alliance Ward 104 by-election candidate and community activist Sinovuyo Dyokwe was also shot dead on Saturday in Dunoon, Cape Town, after taking part in voter registration activities.

The ANC condemned Mleve’s killing and called for arrests.

“The ANC condemns this senseless act of violence in the strongest possible terms and urges law enforcement agencies to spare no effort in ensuring that those responsible are caught and brought to justice,” the party said.

“We also call on all individuals with information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators to share it with the police.”

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The ANC has emerged as the winner in two Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality by-elections, retaining Ward 1 and Ward 10 despite challenges from the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and opposition parties, bolstering the party’s momentum ahead of the Local Government Elections in November.

On Wednesday, the ANC secured Ward 10, which includes Vergenoeg, East Bank, Haven Hills, Egoli and parts of Buffalo Flats.

The result came despite the ward’s former ANC councillor, Pearl Hanse, defecting to the PA before the by-election.

The ANC defeated the PA by 1,631 votes, finishing just short of the two-thirds threshold while securing more than 50% support in all four voting districts, with particularly strong performances at Clements Kadalie Hall (80%, up from 47% in 2021) and Amalinda (79%, up from 71%).

The PA emerged as the main opposition force, finishing second overall (with 13% of the vote, a significant increase from its previous 2%) and outperforming the DA (who dropped from 17% to 12%) in Buffalo Flats and Scenery Park.

But the DA narrowly led the PA at Clements Kadalie Hall and ultimately finished just 20 votes behind its rival across the ward.

The EFF’s support more than halved (falling from 11% to 5%), peaking at 9% in Scenery Park, while the UDM made only modest gains, with its strongest showing coming in Amalinda where it secured 10% of the vote.

Voter turnout stood at 38%, slightly lower than the 41% recorded in 2021.

The ANC also retained Ward 1, which was considered a key test for the party after its councillor, Kuhle Ciliza, also defected to the PA and contested the by-election under a new political banner.

Despite the defection and a crowded ballot that included the SACP and local parties One Love Alliance and the Progressive Community Movement, the ANC retained the ward comfortably, finishing 831 votes ahead of the DA.

The party’s strongest performance came in Pefferville, an area classified coloured under apartheid, where its support rose from 30% in 2021 to 45%, while the PA surged from 1% to 27% and the DA’s vote share collapsed from 60% to 25%, suggesting the PA drew heavily from former DA support.

In Duncan Village, however, the ANC lost ground as the United Democratic Movement (UDM) recorded impressive gains, securing up to 35% support in some voting districts, while the PA surged from 1% to 13%.

Despite suffering significant losses elsewhere in Ward 1, the DA found solace in the low-turnout Braelyn voting districts, where it increased its combined vote share from 64% to 74% while the ANC and PA finished on 14% and 8% respectively.

The EFF’s support collapsed from 8% to just 1%.

Turnout overall increased marginally to 41% from 40%.

The results could be seen as a significant boost for the ANC in one of the Eastern Cape’s most important metropolitan municipalities.

The party has now ended the province’s by-election cycle on a high note, having also retained Ward 32 in Buffalo City in March this year.

In a statement celebrating the Ward 10 victory, the ANC in the Eastern Cape’s Dr WB Rubusana region said the result demonstrated continued public confidence in the governing party.

“The ANC has once again proven that the people trust us to lead. The resounding win at Ward 10, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality by-election is not just a vote — it’s a mandate for progress, service delivery, and a better tomorrow,” the party posted on Facebook.

The party thanked voters, volunteers and community members for supporting its campaign.

The results are also likely to raise concerns within the opposition parties.

The DA lost support in both wards despite campaigning heavily in Ward 10, where it had argued that residents were dissatisfied with service delivery failures.

The EFF’s performance may be particularly troubling for the party after it increased its support across Buffalo City during the 2024 national and provincial elections and came close to overtaking the DA as the metro’s second-largest party.

However, in the by-elections its support fell sharply to 1% in Ward 1 and 5% in Ward 10.

The PA’s growth was another notable feature of the night.

While the party failed to convert councillor defections into electoral victories, it significantly increased its vote share in both wards and appeared to attract support from former DA and ANC voters.

In next week’s by-elections, the DA will be defending a ward in Rustenburg, North West, while the ANC will be defending a ward in Calcutta in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

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Democratic Alliance Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille has said a DA-led administration would seek an urgent Treasury-backed rescue plan for the embattled city.

Addressing residents at a community meeting hosted by the Melville Residents Association on Tuesday night, Zille said South Africa’s economic hub could still be rebuilt, but added that restoring its finances, infrastructure and governance would require intervention from national institutions, the private sector, and international funders.

Eskom said last month that the city and City Power already owed it R5.255 billion in arrears, excluding a further R1.582 billion current account payment due on 5 June.

Zille said the city’s financial position was far worse than official figures suggested.

“Joburg’s debt is currently 65% of its revenue. And it should never be more than 45% of its revenue. That’s where we are now. And that tells you how shocking the state is,” she said.

She accused the current administration of manipulating financial figures and creating new senior management posts ahead of the elections, saying this was part of a culture of corruption, mismanagement, and “last-lap looting”.

“They made provision for 2,000 more senior managers. They’re already massively top-heavy,” she said.

She said a DA-led administration would immediately bring together strong players to develop a financial rescue plan for the city.

“The first thing we will do is get together in the same space, the Johannesburg task team in the National Treasury, the Joburg recovery plan under Operation Vulindlela in the Presidency, and then I want to bring in the Auditor-General as well,” she said.

She said the city would also need to seek funding from international institutions and expand public-private partnerships to rehabilitate essential services.

“We will then first of all have to get a lot of money from the Presidency and the resource mobilisation group,” she said. “Then we will have to go very quickly into public-private partnerships for all the major trading services,” she said.

Zille said Johannesburg’s recovery would depend on restoring confidence among investors, residents and businesses after years of deterioration in basic services.

“We want to get people who are prepared to invest and grow the economy in Joburg. We want to get them loving Joburg, seeing their future in Joburg. And that will bring 200,000 new jobs to Joburg, we are hoping,” she said.

Residents raised concerns about water outages, electricity disruptions, deteriorating roads, and weak service delivery across the city.

Zille acknowledged that reliable water and electricity would not be restored quickly, even under a DA administration, saying the scale of the collapse meant a turnaround would take years.

“When I say reliable water and electricity for all residents, it sounds as if it should be a given. It should be taken for granted. It isn’t. It’ll take us five years if we push as hard as we can to fulfil that pledge,” she said.

She criticised the current administration’s “inadequate” infrastructure targets, saying Johannesburg’s water network required a far more ambitious pipe-replacement programme.

“They were boasting that their target was to replace 15 kilometres of water pipe and then actually replace 20. They should be replacing nearly 200 kilometres of water pipe a year, given the crisis that they’re facing,” she said.

Zille said Johannesburg’s decline was not limited to finances and engineering systems, but extended to planning, law enforcement and urban management.

On urban planning, she said the city needed responsible densification as more people moved into cities, but added that it should not be done in a way that damaged established residential communities.

“Our cities need to densify because more and more people are urbanising. We cannot have total urban sprawl,” she said.

However, she said suburbs such as Melville were already relatively dense and suggested that future development should focus on larger properties elsewhere in the city.

“Melville is quite a densified suburb to begin with. I wouldn’t actually start anywhere near Melville. I would start in those huge properties that I see in Houghton,” she said.

Housing hijackings and illegal occupation of buildings also emerged as major concerns during the meeting.

Zille said weak enforcement and legal obstacles had contributed to the problem. The city needed to act more firmly against criminal networks operating in the built environment, she said.

“We’ve got to deal with the hijacking of buildings first. That I’m absolutely determined to stop.”

She called for greater use of municipal bylaws and criticised the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department for failing to enforce regulations effectively.

“When I went to speak to the municipal courts, they said to me, ‘We’ve got no cases because the Metro Police never apply the bylaws.’ That’s got to change,” she said.

Zille said organised criminal syndicates had taken advantage of the collapse of municipal systems, pointing to the so-called “water mafia” and other networks that profit when public services fail.

“There are lots of mafias. Everywhere there’s money to be made you’ll find the municipal systems break down and then the service providers have to be brought in from outside.”

She said cable theft and vandalism were major contributors to infrastructure collapse, and that the deterioration of public facilities in areas such as Ennerdale was simply a reflection of overall governance failure.

Zille told residents to become more politically active ahead of the local government elections on 4 November, saying voter turnout would be critical to changing the city’s direction.

“We got in 481,000 people voting for the DA on both ballots. All we need is 9,000 more. Our big task in this election is to get them registered and get them out to vote,” she said.

Drawing comparisons with the DA’s governance record in Cape Town, Zille said Johannesburg’s recovery would require ambitious targets, long-term planning and sustained political will.

“I always, in government, set the most stretched targets I can. In Cape Town between 2021 and now, they’ve attracted 400,000 new jobs,” she said.

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Declared donations to South African political parties surged to R97.2 million in the first three months of 2026, with the DA accounting for almost 60% of the total as parties begin mobilising for the 4 November local government elections.

The Electoral Commission said on Sunday five parties declared donations for the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, covering the period from 1 January to 31 March.

The DA declared R57.3 million, followed by RISE Mzansi with R30 million and ActionSA with R9.9 million. The Alliance of Citizens for Change declared R440,500, while Build One South Africa declared R113,794.60.

The latest figure is a big increase from the third quarter, when five parties declared a little more than R35 million and the DA again received the largest share, at more than R31 million.

The IEC said the latest declarations “provide an early indication of intensified political fundraising and mobilisation associated with the commencement of an election period”.

The November vote is expected to test the ANC after it fell below 50% in the 2021 local government elections and then lost its parliamentary majority in the 2024 national elections.

The DA’s R57.3 million declaration comprised R54.9 million in monetary donations and R2.4 million in in-kind donations.

The IEC said the party received major donations of between R10 million and R13 million from regular donors including Main Street 1564 Pty Ltd, Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd, Ms M Slack and Fynbos Kapitaal Proprietary Limited.

Other major DA donations included R4 million from G Ryan, R3 million from D Barnes and R1.27 million from the Danish Liberal Democracy Programme.

The IEC said foreign-linked donations from the Danish Liberal Democracy Programme and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation “appear to be in line with permissible foreign donations”.

RISE Mzansi’s R30 million declaration came from an entity called “We Are The People” and arose from the conversion of a previous loan into a donation.

The IEC said the declaration constituted “one of the largest single declarations made since the commencement of the Political Funding Act”, but said it would engage the party to clarify the terms of the conversion and assess compliance with the Act.

ActionSA declared R9.9 million in monetary donations, including R5 million from businessman Martin Moshal, R1 million each from Siyaya Free to Air TV (Pty) Ltd and African Equity Corporation (Pty) Ltd, and about R2.9 million in cumulative donations from party leader Herman Mashaba.

The ANC did not appear among the five parties listed as having declared donations for the reporting period, but the IEC said it had received donor declarations indicating R770,000 in donations to ANC structures that had not been acknowledged or declared by the party at the time of publication.

These included R500,000 from Valumax Projects to the ANC’s Ekurhuleni branch on March 20 and R270,000 from Captrust Investments (Pty) Ltd to the ANC Veterans League on April 16.

The IEC also said the ANC made two late declarations amounting to R10.5 million, comprising R501,230.21 from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and R10 million from Botho Botho Commercial Enterprises (Pty) Ltd. It said it had issued the ANC with a directive to submit representations regarding the late declarations.

The Electoral Commission said the reporting cycle continued under the revised disclosure framework, which increased the disclosure threshold from R100,000 to R200,000 and the annual upper donation limit from R15 million to R30 million.

Political funding watchdog My Vote Counts criticised the change when it was published in the Government Gazette, saying it would result in “greater secrecy” in political funding.

The Multi-Party Democracy Fund received R4.5 million during the quarter, including R3 million from VodacomSA and R1.5 million from Standard Bank.

“The size and magnitude of the declarations demonstrate that the election season is firmly under way,” the IEC said.

“The Electoral Commission anticipates that both the value and volume of donations will continue to increase, potentially exponentially, as the election date approaches and political campaigning intensifies.”

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More than 70% of South Africans aged between 18 and 19 have not registered to vote despite being eligible, the Electoral Commission (IEC) said on Wednesday as it launched its campaign for the 2026 Local Government Elections.

The IEC officially launched the election programme at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg ahead of voter registration weekend scheduled for June 20-21 and the municipal elections on Nov. 4.

IEC general manager for civic and democracy education, research and knowledge management Moagisi Sibanda said the commission was intensifying efforts to attract first-time voters, particularly young people, amid growing distrust in democratic institutions and elections globally.

“It’s something that we are challenged with, but we are not afraid of the challenge,” Sibanda said.

“Today we launched and showcased a plethora of initiatives that are meant to counter this distrust and to invite South Africans back into the fold and to remind them that they have a role to play.”

She said democracy depended on active citizen participation and that the commission’s research confirmed widespread disengagement among young people.

IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the national voter registration weekend would involve 24,000 registration stations across 4,488 municipal wards.

He said stations would operate over the two days to allow citizens to register, verify their details and confirm their voting districts.

“The Commission has deployed over 800 municipal outreach coordinators, including persons with disabilities, across the country to drive voter education and awareness, reinforcing inclusive participation ahead of the elections,” Mamabolo said.

He said more than 62,000 community events had been held nationwide since the start of the year as part of ongoing voter education campaigns.

Mamabolo added that a door-to-door voter communication and registration drive conducted between May 11 and May 24 had reached 212 of South Africa’s 214 municipalities.

He said the IEC’s tertiary institutions campaign had reached nearly 98,000 students through more than 1,000 activations across all nine provinces, resulting in more than 45,000 student registrations.

“The Schools Democracy Programme, implemented in partnership with the Department of Basic Education, continues to build awareness by educating learners on democratic principles and electoral processes, while encouraging eligible learners aged 16 and older to pre-register,” he said.

Mamabolo said the commission had introduced several initiatives aimed at reversing declining voter turnout, including an online voter registration portal and a youth-focused programme titled “Beats for My Peeps”, developed in partnership with the SABC to combat voter apathy and misinformation.

He said the IEC had also expanded its contact centre into a multi-channel platform offering voice, live chat, email and social media support, while publishing a digital Atlas of Results for the 2024 national and provincial elections.

“The Commission is committed to delivering credible elections through collective responsibility, vigilance and active collaboration with all stakeholders, particularly in the face of rising misinformation,” Mamabolo said.

He added that the IEC was working with the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), Africa Check and Moxii Africa to train more than 500 journalists across all nine provinces.

Mamabolo reminded eligible South Africans that voter registration would take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 20 and 21 and urged registered voters to confirm that their details, including voting districts, were correct.

Only voters registered at a specific voting station would be allowed to vote there, he said.

Electoral Commission chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the commission’s new communication strategies recognised the shift toward a decentralised and digitally driven media environment.

“Our new initiatives seek to transform communication from a periodic information broadcast into a continuous national dialogue,” Moepya said.

“Our strategic focus is clearly directed at young people.”

He said the commission aimed to counter growing political disengagement among young voters by integrating democratic education into the digital and cultural spaces they occupied.

Moepya said local democracy had the potential to become a practical tool for immediate community change.

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Democratic Alliance (DA) federal leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has told delegates in KwaZulu-Natal that the party must fight to win Durban in the local government elections, saying eThekwini could recover only if voters chose a party with a record of governing well.

Speaking at the DA’s provincial congress, which started at the Olive Convention Centre on Durban’s north beach precinct on Saturday, Hill-Lewis said the party’s task in the province was now “bigger than opposition” as South Africa prepares for local elections on 4 November.

“Our task is to become the governing alternative in this province. The biggest party in this province,” Hill-Lewis said.

He said KZN would be a key test of whether the DA could grow beyond its existing base and govern in complex coalition arrangements while remaining“principled, disciplined, and clear about what it stands for”.

KZN is governed by a narrow IFP-led provincial unity coalition, which the ANC, DA and NFP formed after the 2024 national election left Jacob Zuma’s MK Party as the biggest party in the legislature but short of a majority.

The DA governs uMngeni Municipality, which Hill-Lewis said was proof that the party could win and run municipalities in the province.

“We must retain and grow where we already govern. We must show that uMngeni is not an exception, but a beginning,” he said. “uMngeni is proof that the DA can govern in KwaZulu-Natal and govern well.”

But Hill-Lewis placed the most focus on eThekwini, saying Durban should be “one of the great cities of Africa” and a centre of growth, tourism, trade and port-led development.

“We must fight for Durban. We must fight for eThekwini with everything we have,” he said. “Durban does not need another empty promise. Durban needs to move forward.”

He said the DA would tell residents that “this city can work”.

“Your beaches can be clean, taps can run reliably, and your streets can be safe.”

Hill-Lewis also said the party would have to connect more deeply with voters who had not supported it before, particularly in townships, rural communities, churches, taxi ranks, farms, factories, campuses and community halls.

“We must not ask people to come to us first. We must go to them,” he said.

Hill-Lewis said the government of provincial unity showed the DA was willing to enter “difficult spaces” to contribute to stability and reform.

But he also said that coalition politics should not mean abandoning party values.

“It must never mean becoming silent in the face of corruption. It must never mean protecting failure. It must never mean trading principle for position.”

He also called for reforms in policing, saying capable provincial and local governments should be given investigative powers and access to crime intelligence to fight gangs, extortion rackets, and syndicates.

“When people give the DA their vote we will lock up the criminals in SAPS so SAPS can lock up the criminals on the street,” he said. “We will nail ’em and jail ’em”.

Hill-Lewis said the DA wanted “the corrupt cops out of SAPS”.

“We must end SAPS capture, because we cannot expect SAPS to get criminals off the streets while criminals remain inside SAPS.”

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The high-stakes meeting between the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in Nkandla on Monday ended without key issues being resolved.

The meeting was part of the IEC’s stakeholder outreach programme in KwaZulu-Natal ahead of the highly anticipated 4 November local government elections.

The IEC wanted the MKP’s cooperation in ensuring a peaceful and credible election, while the MKP used the meeting to raise “concerns” about the 2024 elections and its lack of trust in the commission.

In its previous outreach programme in the province almost two weeks ago, the IEC met Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli, traditional leaders including King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, leaders of political parties including the ANC, IFP and NFP, faith-based formations and civil society organisations.

The IEC said the engagements provided a constructive platform to exchange views on the state of democracy, electoral readiness, and the collective responsibility to foster a peaceful and credible electoral environment in the province.

After the meeting with the IEC, the MKP issued a statement saying no formal agreement had been reached at this stage, but that both parties had agreed to continue discussions.

“As a critical stakeholder in the upcoming 2026 Local Government Elections, the MK Party engaged the IEC with a clear commitment to strengthening electoral integrity and ensuring that the democratic will of the people is fully respected,” it said.

“The deliberations reflected a mutual willingness to engage, although no formal agreement was reached at this stage. Both parties have, however, agreed on the importance of continued dialogue and will convene a follow-up meeting to further advance discussions on key issues,” it said.

The party also said that it would proceed with its “legal and constitutional processes” against the IEC over its disputed claims relating to the 2024 national and provincial elections, with one of the matters expected to be heard in June.

“The MK Party reiterates that it will proceed with its legal and constitutional processes regarding allegations of stolen votes and vote rigging against the IEC.

“This course of action remains essential in safeguarding the credibility of South Africa’s electoral system and ensuring accountability. The MK Party remains resolute in its commitment to defending the voice of the people and will continue to engage all relevant institutions in pursuit of free, fair, and transparent elections,” it said.

The statement was issued after sources told Inside Politics that MKP leaders had insisted during the meeting that the 2024 elections were “stolen” from the party and that it had lost faith in the IEC to conduct free and fair elections in November.

The party has called for the upcoming local government elections to be postponed until the legal challenges have been adjudicated and ruled upon.

Although the IEC had not yet issued a formal statement after the meeting with the MKP, its chairperson, Mosotho Moepya, told the SABC shortly afterwards that no agreement had been reached.

“I don’t pretend to be speaking for the party; I am sure they will speak, but we walk with clarity, with our heads held high. Do we have solutions for everything? No. We must fashion solutions to things, but we will not be able to fashion those solutions without engaging…” he said.

“The elections coming in November are elections that will require concerted preparations from all electoral stakeholders.”

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The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says it will not campaign around mayoral candidates ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections, opting instead for a ward-based electoral strategy.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday following the party’s voter registration launch and Central Command Team (CCT) meeting, EFF leader Julius Malema said the party would not centre its campaign on personalities.

Malema said all prospective leaders must first contest as ward councillors before being considered for higher office.

“Service delivery and ideas must determine who we vote for, not personality contests and cheap gimmicks,” he said.

Under the new approach, the party will introduce a proportional representation (PR) “placeholder” system, allowing strong ward performers, including those who narrowly lose, to be elevated to PR positions based on electoral performance.

Malema said the system aims to curb factionalism and reward grassroots work.

“People have been becoming PR councillors through factionalism. They are not even known in the wards. Meanwhile, those who worked hard on the ground and lost by a few votes are excluded,” he said.

He added that mayoral hopefuls must first prove themselves at ward level.

“If you want to be a mayor in the EFF, go and become a ward candidate. A mayor will come from among ward candidates; those who have demonstrated leadership, discipline and community involvement,” said Malema.

The party has also set a 1 May deadline for prospective candidates.

Those joining after this date will not be eligible to stand in the upcoming elections.

“It will be clear you are joining to become a candidate. After 1 May, the candidate process is closed,” he said.

As part of the selection process, successful ward candidates will undergo community scrutiny, with public meetings allowing residents to raise objections before final lists are confirmed.

Malema said credible concerns could lead to candidates being reconsidered, reinforcing accountability and local legitimacy.

“It is for this reason that the EFF’s election campaign prioritises voter registration, building strong organisational structures and addressing community challenges first, and naming mayoral candidates second,” he said.

He reiterated that only ward candidates would be eligible for mayoral selection.

“You can’t be a mayor if you are not a ward candidate,” he said.

Malema added that councillors would be introduced to communities after election, with residents given an opportunity to comment on their suitability.

The party also announced that the CCT has been reconfigured into a Central Elections Task Force (CETF), convened by the party president and commander-in-chief and coordinated by the secretary-general.

The CETF will oversee and coordinate all election-related work ahead of and during the 2026 local government elections.

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