News24 | Eastern Cape court dismisses urgent bid to nullify ANC candidate lists for 2026 local polls

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has come under fire over the party’s candidate lists ahead of the local government elections.

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• The Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda dismissed an urgent application by two ANC members seeking to nullify the party’s candidate lists for the local government elections.
• The ruling is the latest in a string of legal battles engulfing the ANC in the province.
• The ANC urged members to close ranks and focus on campaigning ahead of the 4 November poll.
• For more political news, follow News24 Politics. 

The ANC has welcomed the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda’s dismissal of an urgent application challenging its candidate lists for the 2026 local government elections, and has urged Eastern Cape members to close ranks ahead of the 4 November poll.

SEE | Battleground ‘26: The local government elections

Judge Motilal Rugunanan on Wednesday dismissed an application brought by two party members against the Eastern Cape ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC), which sought to nullify the party’s councillor and mayoral candidate lists.

Full reasons for the judgment had not yet been issued when the ANC released its statement on Wednesday.

The two ANC members, from branches in the Chris Hani and Alfred Nzo regions, had approached the court demanding that the lists be set aside.

They alleged that party processes and guidelines were not followed during candidate nominations and that the selection process was manipulated, failing to reflect what transpired at branch general meetings.

The applicants accused the ANC’s provincial executive committee, provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi, and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula of contravening the party’s 2026 candidate selection rules.

READ | The two-hour black hole: Eastern Cape’s missing evidence in ANC registration crisis

They claimed that Mbalula had admitted, in a letter, that the list had been altered and that the finalised ward councillor candidate list was not published on the party’s website as required.

ANC provincial spokesperson Yanga Zicina has been widely reported as urging members to refrain from “fighting political battles in the courts of law”, adding that courts “must not be used as a political platform to pursue failed bids to get elected”.

The judgment is the latest in a series of legal battles engulfing the ANC in the Eastern Cape.

On 16 September, the Electoral Court dismissed the ANC’s appeal over 181 excluded candidates in six municipalities – four of them in the Eastern Cape – after the party failed to complete the final submission on the IEC’s online system before the 28 August deadline.

The ANC has taken the matter to the Constitutional Court.

Meanwhile, Ngcukaitobi has also threatened to sue Mbalula for defamation, accusing him of ordering Andile Lungisa’s removal from the Nelson Mandela Bay proportional representation list.

Eastern Cape ANC chair Oscar Mabuyane described “anarchy” in the party’s ranks and called for decisive action against those responsible for manipulating candidate lists.

Mbalula’s internal report found that the province’s final list reached the ANC’s operations centre just 29 minutes before the IEC deadline, raising concerns about unauthorised changes to lists approved by the party’s national executive committee (NEC).

In Wednesday’s statement, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu called on party structures and supporters in the Eastern Cape to “close ranks” and focus on engaging communities ahead of the November poll, saying the task before the party was to “earn the confidence of the people through hard work, unity and disciplined organisation”.