In South Africa, ANC report points to internal errors in candidate lists
In South Africa, an internal report by the African National Congress (ANC) indicated that errors by party officials resulted in 51 recommended candidates for mayoral posts being left off the electoral lists for the municipal elections on November 4. The document by ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula was presented to the party leadership, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, TimesLIVE reports.
The ANC appealed to the Electoral Court, seeking to compel the Electoral Commission of South Africa to accept some of the omitted nominations. The party cited a technical failure at the commission, but in the internal report Mbalula also named the late submission of some lists and last-minute changes as reasons.
51 candidates left off the lists
According to the report, the ANC recommended 206 people for mayoral posts in 48 municipalities, but 51 of them did not appear on any electoral list. They included 23 candidates in metropolitan municipalities and cities that the party considers strategic, as well as another 28 in local municipalities. The problem affected 32 municipalities.
Mbalula noted that a person who is not on an electoral list cannot be elected as a council member and therefore cannot become a mayor. According to him, provincial secretaries were twice instructed to ensure that all recommended candidates were included on the lists, but this was not done.
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Among the omitted candidates was Reverend Frank Chikane, who was considered a possible rival to Democratic Alliance's Helen Zille in the contest for the mayoral post in Johannesburg. A letter from ANC elections head Kgalema Motlanthe states that party officials in Gauteng were instructed to add Chikane to the final list, but this did not happen.
Late submission of the list
The problem was most acute in the Eastern Cape province, where it affected four important municipalities. According to Mbalula's report, provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi sent the final list to the ANC operations centre at 16:31, 29 minutes before the Electoral Commission's 17:00 deadline.
Mbalula noted that during that time, centre staff had to receive the file, reconcile it with existing data, make changes and submit information for all relevant councils. He also pointed out that correcting 35 identification numbers had previously taken more than four hours. In his view, the situation was not related to the Electoral Commission's system, as the provincial leadership left no time buffer.
The secretary-general also expressed suspicion that Ngcukaitobi and others responsible for the list may have made unauthorized changes after its approval by the National Executive Committee, removing and adding names without the appropriate mandate. To clarify the circumstances, Mbalula engaged a firm to conduct a forensic investigation.
