Eastern Cape ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi has fired an extraordinary salvo at party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, demanding answers over the party’s botched submission of council candidates for the local government elections.
In a letter dated August 31, Ngcukayitobi demanded a detailed report from Mbalula’s office setting out exactly which candidates the ANC submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in the Eastern Cape and whether the party complied with the nomination requirements.
The move has exposed a growing rift between the two secretaries, with ANC insiders describing an increasingly tense battle over who should take responsibility for the party’s electoral blunder.
The dispute centres on the ANC’s incomplete submission of council candidates in the Eastern Cape before last week’s IEC deadline.
According to insiders, Mbalula’s office and Ngcukayitobi have been at odds over who should carry the blame for the failed submission, with the dispute threatening to become a political liability for both sides.
Sources said Ngcukayitobi was particularly concerned that responsibility for the incomplete lists could be shifted to the provincial structures, despite the involvement of the national office in the submission process.
One insider said Ngcukayitobi’s demand for a detailed account was aimed at establishing a clear record of what was submitted, by whom and when.
Another source said the provincial secretary was seeking to “clear his name” should the ANC ultimately fail to persuade the IEC to accept the outstanding candidates.
The provincial leaders said that while they are aware of the letter, they claimed that it was not sanctioned by the provincial executive committee.
As a result [of technical problems with the IEC’s candidate-capture system], a small number of the movement’s entries are being finalised together with the commission. This is a technical and administrative matter, and it is being handled through the commission’s established processes.
— ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s office
The sources cautioned that the dispute had become increasingly sensitive because any failure to get candidates onto the ballot could have serious consequences for the ANC’s performance in the Eastern Cape.
The row comes as Mbalula’s office and the IEC have publicly offered sharply different accounts of what went wrong.
In a statement on Monday, Mbalula’s office said the ANC had successfully lodged the names of the “overwhelming majority” of its candidates within the nomination deadline, but claimed the IEC’s candidate-capture system had experienced technical problems affecting a number of parties.
“As a result, a small number of the movement’s entries are being finalised together with the commission. This is a technical and administrative matter, and it is being handled through the commission’s established processes,” Mbalula’s office said.
But IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo rejected the suggestion that the commission’s system had malfunctioned.
The IEC said its online candidate nomination system had remained available throughout the nomination process, including on the cut-off date.
The commission said it had opened the system on June 21, weeks before the official nomination period began on August 7, to ensure parties had sufficient time to submit the names of their candidates.
The conflicting accounts have now added another layer to the ANC’s internal dispute, with Ngcukayitobi seeking documentary evidence of what was actually submitted by the party.
In his letter to Mbalula, he requested a consolidated list of all ward and proportional-representation candidates submitted to the IEC, broken down by municipality and region.
He specifically highlighted the OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo, Sundays River and Walter Sisulu regions.
Ngcukayitobi also demanded the ANC’s compliance status from the IEC.
He gave Mbalula’s office just one day to provide the information, saying the report would help the provincial executive committee and elections team “strengthen our systems”, ensure compliance and safeguard the integrity of the candidate-selection process.
The report was requested by 1pm on September 1.
The extraordinary intervention by the provincial secretary has effectively turned the ANC’s candidate-list crisis into an internal contest over accountability — with two of the party’s most senior administrative figures now facing off over who was responsible for getting the ANC’s candidates onto the ballot.
The dispute comes barely two months before the November 4 local government elections, placing renewed scrutiny on the ANC’s ability to manage its candidate-selection and election machinery.
Lizeka Tandwa
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