EDITORIAL | High-stakes blunder exposes ANC’s internal disarray and threatens election credibility - TimesLIVE
The ANC has now taken its 2026 municipal candidates list chaos to the Electoral Court, asking it to overturn the Independent Electoral Commission’s decision to refuse to process more than 181 nominations affecting six municipalities because they were not submitted within the stipulated deadline.
Parties had until 5pm on August 28 to submit their lists of ward and proportional representation candidates on the IEC online portal that had been made available in real time to all registered parties to upload their nominees in the wards or municipalities they wanted to contest.
But when the deadline arrived, it emerged that the next day the ANC, under the leadership of its secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, has missed the deadline to submit candidates to contest six municipalities, including its strongholds of the Eastern Cape, the Free State and some parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
With egg on his face, Mbalula blamed the IEC, alleging their system had a technical glitch, hence the party’s failure to fully upload their list on the IEC portal on time, and effectively asking for their list to be accommodated outside the legislated deadline.
He claims that his party, and 45 others, had captured the names of their candidates on the system but they were not fully submitted due to a technical glitch.
But IEC electoral technocrats have strongly rejected this, repeatedly stating that there was nothing wrong on their side and that there would be no deadline extension.
It is for that reason that Mbalula on Monday ran to the Electoral Court on an urgent basis, asking it to overturn the IEC’s tough stance and allow for the outstanding names to be admitted into the IEC’s system.
Now the ANC has put the Electoral Court in an awkward position of deciding against the IEC, the party of Cyril Ramaphosa, simply because someone failed to properly do his job.
Whether he will win or lose the court case is a debate for another day. What all this reveals is the chaotic state of how Mbalula’s office, effectively the ANC’s engine room, manages or mismanages key party processes and other matters.
Missing a deadline of this magnitude in high-stakes elections ahead of November 4, is a serious blight on Mbalula’s competence, especially for someone harbouring presidential ambitions.
Leaving a submission of this scale to the very last day or hour points to a serious tardiness on his part.
In its court papers, the ANC argues it was locked out of the system on Friday, August 28, at 4.34pm and again at 4.57pm. At 4.35pm, they attempted to report the problem to the responsible IEC official, who returned their call at 4.40pm.
Now the ANC has put the Electoral Court in an awkward position of deciding against the IEC, the party of Cyril Ramaphosa, simply because someone failed to properly do his job.
The alleged IEC blunder aside, it is also telling how the ANC failed to include on its list veteran Frank Chikane, whom it had been punting as a mayoral candidate for Johannesburg.
It also failed to submit the names of Andile Lungisa in Nelson Mandela Bay and Nocawe Mafu in Buffalo City.
So win or lose, Mbalula has proven that he cannot be trusted with running complex and sophisticated systems and processes.
The mayhem also makes a huge dent in the party’s already battered credibility, and its messages and promises to voters will continue to ring hollow while its renewal project remains a pie in the sky.
