Court rejects ANC candidates’ rescission application over Cape Town ward nominations - IOL

The Electoral Court has ruled in favour of two ANC councillor-elect who had sought relief from court when their names were irregularly removed from the candidate list.

The Electoral Court has dismissed an application by two ANC members to rescind an earlier court decision to remove their names from the candidate list submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to contest elections in the City of Cape Town.

ANC members Mncedi Mdludla and Lungisa Somdaka had asked the court to rescind the September interdict that ordered the inclusion of the names of Siphelo Mtshetsha and Siphelele Bobozayo as candidate councillors for Wards 33 and 88 in Philippi.

According to court papers, Mtshetsha and Bobozayo had in the original application asked the court to review and set aside the ANC’s decision to submit the names of Somdaka in the place of Sithembiso Mzobe and Mdludla, instead of Zukisani Sophazi for the respective two wards.

The court had found on September 15 that the decisions to submit the names of Somdaka and Mdludla were unlawful and unconstitutional.

It ordered that the names of Mzobe and Sophazi be on the candidate list for the two wards, and also ordered the IEC to amend the names of candidates that had been submitted.

In the rescission application, Somdaka and Mdludla claimed that they never received a notice of the main application.

They also alleged that the order granted by the court was erroneously sought and erroneously granted.  

Mtshetsha and Bobozayo argued in court that their application was to vindicate the rights of the ANC members.

They told the court that the rights of their branch members had been severely violated by the ANC after it failed to comply with its own internal candidate nomination and selection processes.

The ANC's ward candidates' names were submitted to the IEC despite the candidate lists not having been published on the party’s website and members were unaware that the correct names were submitted.

According to court documents, the ANC had ordered a re-run of the final branch general meeting after a dispute was lodged, and Mzobe garnered 53 votes and Somdaka 16.

In the judgment delivered on Monday, Judge Leicester Adams found that the nominations for the two wards were irregular and unlawful as they were made in direct contravention of the ANC’s candidate selection rules.

“Members were not afforded an opportunity to exercise their rights to have disputes in relation to the nominations resolved in accordance with the internal dispute resolution mechanism provided for in the ANC’s candidate selection rules.”

Adams said the submission of the names of Somdaka and Mdludla was procedurally irrational as it undermined the very purpose of the ANC’s candidate selection rules.

“I therefore conclude that the applicants’ application for the relief sought as against the first, second and third respondents, should succeed,” he said.

Regarding the rescission application, Adams said Mdludla and Somdaka had wanted the IEC to amend the names of the nominated candidates for the withdrawal of the ward candidate nomination certificates issued to Mzobe and Sophazi to be replaced with candidate nomination certificates to be issued to them.

“I make short shrift of the application directed against the Electoral Commission, which, in my view, was ill-advised. That relief which the eighth and ninth respondents seek is wholly incompetent. The application for that relief therefore falls to be dismissed.”

He also said an applicant for rescission of a court order must establish “good cause”.

“The difficulty faced by the eighth and ninth respondents is that they have failed to demonstrate that they have a bona fide defence to the order granted against them by this court of 15 September 2026.

“They have not pleaded any new facts that answer the first and second applicants’ case in the main application. On the contrary, they conceded in several respects that the decisions of the ANC NEC and Mr Mbalula were unlawful.”

Adams added that Somdaka and Mdludla did not take issue with the factual finding that the candidates who received the most votes at the final ANC branch general meetings, Mzobe and Sophazi, were removed from the ANC final list submitted to the IEC in violation of the ANC's candidate selection rules.

“The application for rescission therefore falls to be dismissed,” he said in the judgment.

Both Mzobe and Sophazi were elected as candidate councillors on November 4.