News24 | ‘Victory for democracy’: ConCourt puts 19 uMshwathi ANC PR candidates back on ballot paper

The ANC says it will contest all 14 wards in the uMshwathi Local Municipality.

Yolanda Mdzeke/News24

• Regional secretary Thembinkosi Zondi says the 19 affected PR candidates will now appear on reprinted ballots, and that the ANC will contest all 14 wards in the uMshwathi Local Municipality.
• Only the ANC challenged the exclusion in the Constitutional Court, even though, according to the IEC, 2 274 candidates from various parties were captured but never finally submitted.
• With 66% of ballots already printed, the IEC warned that a reprint would create unrecoverable costs and squeeze the 21-day printing window before the 4 November vote.
• For more political news, visit News24 Politics.

The ANC in the Moses Mabhida region in KwaZulu-Natal, under which the uMshwathi Local Municipality falls, has welcomed the Constitutional Court ruling that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) must do everything in its power to ensure that the party can compete in the six municipalities affected by its failure to press the “submit as final” button when it submitted its candidate lists.

The affected municipalities included Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, uMshwathi and Mangaung.

Regional secretary Thembinkosi Zondi told News24 that the ruling meant the 19 affected PR councillor candidates in uMshwathi would now be on the reprinted ballot.

READ | ANALYSIS: Mbalula gets a reprieve. But is the GNU on the chopping block?

In uMshwathi, the ANC had 16 out of 27 councillors in the council, making it the majority party.

“It’s a victory for democracy and the confirmation of the right to vote and to be voted for, which came as a result of many years of struggle where blood was lost. The IEC appeared to be personal. As much as we agree that the button was not pressed, the IEC should have been very careful not to allow ulterior influence to punish the ANC in an unfair game,” said Zondi.

He said the ANC would contest all 14 wards in uMshwathi.

The party has governed the municipality for more than two decades.

Zondi said he had a message for those who thought they were going to benefit from the ANC’s misfortune:

It’s unfair to wish bad for your opponent while hoping to rely on his or her possible misfortunes to solve your own problems. Therefore, in future, come out and fight your battles even if they seem to be the same as those of your opponent.

The ANC approached the Constitutional Court after it failed to press the “submit as final” button on the IEC’s Online Candidate Nomination System for six municipalities before the 17:00 deadline on 28 August 2026, despite having uploaded all required candidate information and having paid the necessary deposits.

It asked the Constitutional Court to overturn an Electoral Court ruling that upheld the IEC’s exclusion of the party’s candidates from six municipalities in the 4 November local government elections.

The Electoral Court held that the “submit as final” function formed part of the prescribed manner of electronic nomination, because the regulations required parties to “complete” forms on the online nominations system and completing them “cannot be divorced from the functionality of the system”.

READ | Mbalula collapses after ConCourt rules for ANC in candidate lists case

Until “submit as final” is clicked, the court found, nominations remained provisional and capable of amendment, replacement or withdrawal. Only that step communicated a party’s “final and unequivocal decision” to contest.

The court accepted that the consequence was “disenfranchisement rather than enfranchisement, exclusion rather than participation” but held that that did not make its interpretation wrong.

The Constitutional Court heard arguments on Monday, after which Deputy Chief Justice Dunstan Mlambo promised a speedy ruling, given the urgency ahead of the 4 November local government elections.

During the hearing, some justices’ questions suggested that they had concerns about disenfranchising voters.

On Thursday, in a ruling that lasted hardly four minutes, Justice Rammaka Mathopo said: “The court has concluded by a majority that the appeal must be upheld.”

Acting Justice Annali Basson and Justice Kate Savage dissented.

The majority comprised Mathopo and Justices Nonkosi Mhlantla, Leona Theron, Nambitha Dambuza, and Acting Justices Andre Le Grange and Lister Nuku.

Mathopo read the court’s order: “The electoral commission is directed to do all things necessary to include the party lists and ward candidate nominations mentioned in paragraph four of this order in the lists and nominations onto the ballot papers and all other relevant processes for the purposes of the 4th November 2026 elections.”

Mathopo added that the court would hand down its reasons later and made no costs order.

READ | ON THE ROAD: ANC’s ballot blunder puts KZN stronghold uMshwathi in play as rivals circle

Before the judgment, the IEC disclosed that 66% of ballots had already been printed.

If the ANC prevailed, the commission warned, ballots for the affected municipalities would have to be reprinted, creating sunk costs and piling pressure on the 21-day ballot-printing window in the run-up to 4 November.

The impact of the case was broader than the ANC. According to reports, 2 274 candidates from different parties had been captured in the system but not finally submitted by the deadline, while the ANC’s affected candidates numbered 181. Only the ANC brought a Constitutional Court challenge.

Following the ruling, a visibly emotional Mbalula addressed the media. He thanked party structures and those within the affected municipalities for their discipline.

Mbalula said the ANC needed to review the continued presence of the DA in the 10-party GNU, as its opposition to this case contradicted a foundational pillar of the statement of intent signed by the parties.

“Is there any need to maintain this relationship in the GNU?” he said. “And that is the fundamental and principled question that the ANC will ponder.”

The IEC is expected to brief the nation on Friday afternoon.

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