Key Takeaways
- The IEC’s affidavit states that ANC officials continued to use the online candidate nomination system up until the 5 p.m. deadline on 28 August, but failed to click “submit as final” for six municipalities.
- System logs show no downtime or technical glitch; the IEC attributes the missed submissions to the ANC running out of time.
- ANC administrators were logged out briefly at 4.34 p.m. and 4.57 p.m., yet the commission’s data reveal no system activity at those times for the disputed wards.
- The IEC had provided extensive training, warnings, and a 92‑page automated email two days before the deadline listing unsubmitted ward lists.
- Errors also surfaced in eThekwini and Ray Nkonyeni, where ward candidates were entered under the wrong wards, duplicated, or swapped.
- In the ANC strongholds of Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns (Eastern Cape), the party now has no candidates on either ballot for the 4 November local elections.
- The IEC argues there is no decision to appeal because the ANC never submitted the lists; by operation of law the candidates were not nominated.
- The DA’s application to intervene was opposed by the ANC, which claims the dispute is solely between itself and the IEC.
- Nationally, 142,072 candidates were successfully nominated; an additional 2,274 candidates from 45 parties remained unsubmitted and are therefore not in contention.
- The IEC will publish the final candidate list the following week, confirming which parties appear on the ballot.
IEC’s Position on the Nomination Deadline
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) filed an answering affidavit on Wednesday, opposing the ANC’s application to have its late‑submitted candidate lists placed on the ballot for the 4 November local government elections. Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo deposed that the IEC’s records show ANC officials were still accessing the online candidate nomination system (OCNS) right up until the 5 p.m. deadline on 28 August. Despite this access, the ANC never completed the final “submit as final” step for six municipalities, which the IEC says amounts to a failure to nominate candidates rather than a technical problem.
Evidence of Continued System Access
Mamabolo attached a table drawn from the commission’s data indicating that, in the six disputed municipalities, there was no recorded system activity at or near the times the ANC claimed its administrators were logged out (4.34 p.m. and 4.57 p.m.). The affidavit also referenced automated emails showing that the ANC did successfully submit its ward and proportional‑representation lists for the municipality of Inxuba Yethemba at 4.56 p.m. and 4.57 p.m., proving the system was functional at the critical moment. The IEC’s servers recorded no downtime during the period in question.
ANC’s Claim of a System Glitch Rejected
The ANC had argued that technical glitches prevented timely submission, but Mamabolo stated that the party “has elected not to adduce any evidence whatsoever to either support its assertions about a system glitch, which is denied, or to gainsay these objective facts.” He concluded that the ineluctable inference from the objective evidence is that the ANC simply ran out of time, leaving the final submission step to the last moment and thus unable to complete the process.
Prior Warnings and Training Provided by the IEC
The IEC emphasized that it had warned the ANC repeatedly before the deadline. Training sessions were held in June and again in all nine provinces in July, attended by ANC representatives. Presentation slides included red‑text warnings that lists must be submitted as final. Two days before the deadline, the system sent the ANC an automated email—92 pages long—listing every ward list that had not yet been submitted as final, giving the party ample opportunity to act.
Last‑Minute Changes and Withdrawals
Mamabolo noted that the ANC continued to modify lists in the final hours, citing an example where an already submitted list for Chief Albert Luthuli in Mpumalanga was withdrawn at 3.44 p.m. on the deadline day. He argued that even with the option of physical submission, leaving the process to the last hour invites avoidable obstacles such as car trouble or traffic delays, for which the party bears responsibility.
Errors in Other Municipalities
Beyond the six municipalities at the heart of the legal dispute, the ANC admitted that capturing errors had affected eThekwini and Ray Nkonyeni in KwaZulu‑Natal. Ward candidates were entered under the wrong wards, duplicated, or swapped between wards, further complicating the party’s nomination process and underscoring systemic issues with data entry rather than platform failure.
Impact on ANC Strongholds
The municipalities where the ANC failed to submit lists include Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns (all in the Eastern Cape), uMshwathi (KwaZulu‑Natal), and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality (Free State). Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns are traditional ANC strongholds; the party now stands to have no candidate on either the ward or proportional‑representation ballot when voters go to the polls on 4 November, potentially jeopardizing its electoral performance in those areas.
Legal Standing: No Decision to Appeal
The IEC’s central legal argument is that there is no administrative decision for the ANC to appeal. Mamabolo asserted, “The commission did not take a decision to exclude the ANC’s lists from the six municipalities in question. The ANC did not submit those lists by the deadline using the OCNS. By operation of law, those candidates were not nominated. There is no decision to appeal against.” Consequently, the court’s role is limited to determining whether the ANC’s omission was justified—a determination the IEC argues is unsupported by evidence.
DA’s Intervention and ANC’s Response
The ANC also opposed the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) application to intervene in the case, filed on the same Wednesday. ANC Secretary‑General Fikile Mbalula stated that the dispute is strictly between the ANC and the IEC, and that the DA has no quarrel with either the commission or the law. DA MP Werner Horn, who sits on the IEC’s national political liaison committee, countered that, on its own version, the ANC simply did not submit candidates in the six municipalities, leaving no discretion to permit late inclusion.
National Nomination Statistics
Nationally, the IEC recorded 142,072 candidates who were successfully nominated. An additional 2,274 candidates from 45 parties were captured on the system but never finally submitted; these individuals are not in contention for the upcoming elections. The IEC will publish the final candidate list the following week, confirming which parties and individuals will appear on the ballot across South Africa’s municipalities.