Johannesburg – The African National Congress (ANC) has removed more than 350 councillor candidates from its lists ahead of South Africa’s 2026 local government elections after last-minute vetting uncovered criminal records, missing qualifications and other concerns.
According to News24, the ANC held two special National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings within 48 hours as it raced to finalise its candidate lists before the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) deadline.
The party’s vetting process reportedly identified candidates with criminal records and no Grade 12 certificates, prompting the ANC to remove them from its lists. President Cyril Ramaphosa defended the party’s vetting process amid the late changes.
The purge comes after the ANC introduced a more centralised and competency-based approach to candidate selection ahead of the 4 November 2026 local government elections. The party had said the process was intended to identify candidates who were capable, ethical and accountable.
[PRESIDENT SPEECH IN TSHWANE REGIONAL MANIFESTO RALLY]
We do not want councillors to be working for themselves or for their own pockets, we do not want councillors who hire their boyfriends and girlfriends and not take care of the community. We do not want councillors that are… pic.twitter.com/Q7G9fLWg7e
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) August 30, 2026
Extraordinary steps
In April, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party was taking “extraordinary steps” to ensure that the people deployed to municipalities were “capable, ethical, disciplined and accountable”, according to Polity.
The latest removals highlight the difficulties the ANC has faced in implementing its new selection system. News24 reported earlier that the party had convened an emergency NEC meeting as it raced against the IEC deadline to finalise councillor and mayoral nominations.
The vetting process has also generated questions at regional level. In Sedibeng, ANC regional secretary Jason Mkhwane said all of the region’s candidates had matric, while acknowledging that vetting was conducted by the party’s national office.
“All our candidates have matric, as far as I can remember. Vetting is done by the national office,” Mkhwane said, according to The Citizen.
The ANC has faced mounting pressure to improve the quality of its municipal leadership after years of criticism over poor governance, financial mismanagement and service-delivery failures in several municipalities.
Intensify scrutiny
The party’s own candidate-selection guidelines state that the 2026 process is aimed at choosing “the best possible candidates” for councillor, mayoral, speaker, chief whip and mayoral committee positions, with an emphasis on leadership capable of driving development at local level.
The last-minute purge comes as the ANC prepares for a difficult municipal election campaign. The party is seeking to recover support after its vote share fell below 50% in the 2021 local elections, while facing growing competition from the Democratic Alliance, uMkhonto weSizwe Party, Economic Freedom Fighters, Patriotic Alliance and other parties.
The party has also struggled to finalise its mayoral candidates. Daily Maverick reported that the ANC recently published a shortlist of 42 potential mayoral candidates for eight metropolitan municipalities, rather than announcing final candidates.
The removal of more than 350 councillor candidates is therefore likely to intensify scrutiny of the ANC’s candidate-selection process, particularly whether its new vetting system can produce credible municipal leadership ahead of the November elections.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
