DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal — The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal has formally approached the Electoral Court after missing the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) candidate list deadline, attributing the failure to a systemic glitch. The oversight has impacted candidate submissions in key regions, including the eThekwini and Ray Nkonyeni municipalities, prompting a legal challenge to ensure the party’s full participation in the upcoming elections.
The KZN ANC confirmed that the submission failure affected three regions within the province, with the Msunduzi local municipality also cited. Similar submission issues were noted in the Eastern Cape and Free State. KZN ANC Coordinator James Nxumalo addressed the matter, emphasizing that the party had convened a special Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) meeting to affirm its readiness to contest all 921 wards in the province.
Nxumalo clarified that the party submitted its lists on Friday, August 28, under the impression that all documentation had been successfully received by the IEC. However, over the subsequent weekend, the party discovered that certain municipal lists were missing from the IEC’s records. Furthermore, specific data errors were identified in the system. In the Ray Nkonyeni municipality, a single candidate was erroneously listed across three wards (wards 3, 16, and 136). In the eThekwini metro, two candidates were swapped between wards 6 and 91, while another candidate was duplicated across wards 65, 90, and 190. The ANC has submitted these discrepancies to the IEC for immediate correction.
Addressing the eThekwini metro specifically, Nxumalo noted that out of five identified mayoral candidates, only the top three currently appear on the submitted list. He stressed that resolving the status of the remaining two candidates falls under the competence of the ANC’s national headquarters, with Secretary General Fikile Mbalula actively managing the issue.
When confronted with recent Ipsos opinion polls suggesting the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) leads in eThekwini, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), with the ANC trailing in third, Nxumalo dismissed the survey’s predictive value. He asserted that the ANC’s internal ground data presents a “totally different picture,” citing warm community receptions, an influx of defections from rival parties, and a firm objective to secure over 50% of the vote in the metro and secondary cities.
Shifting to security concerns, Nxumalo expressed grave alarm over a resurgence of political intolerance and lawlessness in KwaZulu-Natal, warning it threatens to undo decades of democratic progress. He highlighted reports of political candidates being killed in the province and urged law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned in bringing perpetrators to justice.
Responding to observations by KZN Premier and IFP leader Thami Ntuli, who suggested the violence might stem from intra-party conflicts involving ANC members turning on one another, Nxumalo acknowledged this as a plausible factor. While noting that no official ANC candidate has been killed to date, he condemned the targeting of any community-elected representatives. He agreed that police investigations must thoroughly examine whether the violence is driven by intra-party rivalries, inter-party clashes, or external actors.
