Pretoria – African National Congress (ANC) councillors are challenging disputed candidate nominations in several municipalities, raising fresh concerns about the party’s candidate selection processes ahead of South Africa’s November 4 local government elections.
According to TimesLIVE, Tshwane councillor Nomvula Seelane has approached the Johannesburg High Court to challenge the nomination of Mamosa Phasha as the ANC’s Ward 28 candidate in Mamelodi, alleging that irregularities undermined the branch voting process.
Seelane claims she secured 110 votes at a branch general meeting, compared with six for Tebogo Mabala, four for Neville Ndlovu and two for Kamogelo Ntlantleng. Despite the results recorded in her court papers, Phasha was selected as the party’s candidate.
The ANC’s provincial dispute resolution committee previously rejected Seelane’s complaint, finding that the allegations had not been sufficiently substantiated to invalidate the meeting. It ruled that “the Ward 28 BGM and the outcomes thereof are accordingly upheld”. Seelane is now seeking judicial intervention, but her allegations have not been proven in court.
Broader wave of internal challenges
The dispute is part of a broader wave of internal challenges. ANC councillor Anele Gabuza has also challenged the nomination of Yanga Mjingwana in Cape Town, while three councillors in Matlosana, North West, have approached the High Court over their exclusion from the party’s candidate lists, the report said.
The latest developments follow a separate candidate-list setback for the ANC.
The Witness reported that the Electoral Court dismissed the party’s challenge against the exclusion of 181 candidates across six municipalities after it failed to finalise its submissions on the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) online nomination system by the August 28 deadline.
The ANC blamed technical difficulties, but the IEC maintained that the required final submission had not been completed.
Serious consequences
According to eNCA, elections analyst Wayne Sussman warned that the ruling would have serious consequences in affected areas, saying it was “a setback for ANC activists, councillors and the people who planned to vote for the party on election day”.
The ANC has indicated that it intends to pursue further legal action.
EWN reported on October 12 that the party was taking its fight over the excluded candidates to the Constitutional Court.
With the elections approaching, the overlapping disputes place renewed attention on the ANC’s candidate selection procedures, internal accountability and compliance with electoral rules. However, the individual challenges involve different circumstances and legal processes, and allegations of irregularities should not be treated as established wrongdoing.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
