News24 | ANC doubles down on IEC glitch claims, insists candidate lists were submitted on time

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu. The party claims that technical glitches in the IEC’s system led to issues with the party’s submission of candidate lists for the 2026 local government elections.

Gallo Images/Fani Mahuntsi

• The ANC claims that technical glitches in the IEC’s system led to issues with the party’s submission of candidate lists for the 2026 local government elections.
• But the IEC has denied that there were system failures, saying that 2 274 candidates were not fully submitted by the deadline.
• The ANC insists all of its candidates were uploaded on time.
• For more political news, visit News24 Politics.

The ANC has doubled down on its claim that the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) system experienced technical glitches on the day it was meant to submit its list of nominated candidates, which led to the party’s failure to submit candidate lists for certain municipalities.

In a statement on Thursday, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party did not miss the commission’s deadline and that the party’s upload of the lists was 100% complete before 17:00 on 28 August.

This is in contrast to the commission’s earlier claim that its online system had no issues on the day.

It stated that 2 274 potential candidates were captured but not finally submitted on the Online Candidate Nomination System (OCNS) by 17:00 last Friday.

The IEC said the 480 proportional representation (PR) and 1 794 ward candidates were affected, as well as 45 parties.

In addition, the IEC’s candidate nomination system had been opened from 21 June 2026.

At a press briefing on Wednesday, the IEC stuck to its guns, stating that the potential candidates had not been submitted and were “therefore not in contention for this election”.

READ | More than 142 000 candidates to contest 10 500 seats in November elections

But Bhengu insists that the ANC is contesting the 2026 local government elections “across the length and breadth of the country” in November.

She said:

Our candidates were nominated by our branches and communities, vetted, and lodged with the electoral commission, and we intend to be on the ballot in every ward and every municipality.

The situation has caused panic within the party’s rank and file.

Bhengu also said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that several municipalities in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, as well as the Mangaung metro in the Free State, were affected.

She added that all nine provinces had completed the work allocated to them.

“Every provincial secretary, working with the provincial list committees and under the direction of the ANC electoral committee, uploaded the candidates nominated by our branches and regions onto the commission’s online candidate nomination system,” Bhengu said.

[WATCH] AROUND 150 OUT OF OVER 10 000 CANDIDATES ARE AFFECTED BUT THIS IS STILL SIGNIFICANT AS EVERY CANDIDATE COUNTS.

This issue is affecting about 150 out of over 10 000 candidates submitted, but even that number is very significant to the ANC because our communities… pic.twitter.com/xba0eLK0Mb

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) September 2, 2026

What did not close, she added, was the system’s final electronic confirmation step on a portion of those lists.

“The difficulty emerged in the closing hours of the window and was reported to the commission as it arose. The records of the affected candidates had already been captured and stored on the OCNS before 17:00. We are addressing these system failures with the commission through the proper channels. This was not confined to one party or one municipality,” Bhengu said.

She said the ANC was not asking the IEC to condone a late nomination and added:

We seek to add no name that was not on the OCNS by 17h00, and no amendment or reordering of any list.

“We ask only that the commission recognise and process what its own system received and stored before the deadline, rather than treat it as never having been submitted because technical failures prevented the final confirmation.”

In addition, Bhengu said ANC electoral committee chairperson and former president Kgalema Motlanthe declared the candidate nomination and submission process a “resounding success” and expressed his confidence that a solution would be found, which expanded instead of constrained, the participation of people in South Africa’s democracy.

“The ANC is ready, and our candidates are ready. We retain our confidence in the electoral commission and in its constitutional duty to deliver free, fair and credible elections, and we shall keep our people informed as this engagement proceeds,” Bhengu said.