Court overturns Mbalula’s decision to remove Andile Lungisa from ANC election candidate list

The ANC was directed to take immediate steps to reinstate Lungisa. ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa has secured a court victory after the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ruled against his exclusion from the party’s candidate list for the November 2026 local government elections. The judgment, delivered on Friday, 9 October 2026, found that the decision to remove Lungisa from the proportional representation (PR) councillor list for Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in the Eastern Cape was unlawful. The ANC had pointed to his criminal record and outstanding vetting process as grounds for removing him from its candidate list. LIVE interactive map, latest news, multimedia and more! View Map However, Lungisa challenged the matter in court, citing the ANC, its secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, the NEC and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as respondents. Delivering judgment, Judge Nelisa Phiwokazi Mali noted that the court’s task was to establish whether Mbalula had acted within the powers granted to him by the ANC’s governing structures to remove Lungisa’s name from the list. “The court is not called upon to substitute its assessment for that of the political party. “The question is narrower: whether the person who removed the applicant’s name acted within the authority conferred upon him by the party’s own governing instruments and is consistent with the constitution,” Mali said. She accepted that Lungisa’s account of having progressed beyond the relevant stage of the ANC’s vetting process was consistent with the “undisputed” procedures followed before the IEC’s 28 August deadline for submission of candidate lists. The judge also placed particular emphasis on the party’s internal rules governing the removal of candidates from its lists. Mali pointed to the ANC’s constitution, which states that “no one may be taken off the lists unless they are disqualified by the vetting process or they are voted out by 90% of the extended NEC”. “The significance of this provision is that the internal rules themselves prescribe a defined decision-making structure. “The secretary-general’s function is not thereby converted into an unrestricted discretion to amend the final list.” ANC ordered to restore Lungisa to election candidate list The judge contended that Mbalula’s actions effectively treated him as the “decision-maker” responsible for making a final determination on Lungisa’s disqualification. The court further found that Lungisa had not been given an opportunity to respond to the alleged “outstanding requirements” the ANC had reportedly raised concerning his candidacy. On this basis, Mali ruled in Lungisa’s favour. “The removal of the applicant’s name from the proportional representation list of candidates for the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay is declared to be unconstitutional, unlawful, invalid and of no force or effect,” the judgment reads. The ANC was directed to take immediate steps to reinstate Lungisa, while the IEC was ordered to supplement the candidate list to include his name. ANC vs IEC The judgment comes as the ANC continues to deal with the consequences of missing the IEC’s deadline to submit 181 councillor nominations for the municipal elections scheduled for 4 November. The deadline closed at 5pm on 28 August. The party blamed its failure to submit the nominations electronically on a “technical glitch“. As a result, the affected candidates were left off the ballot in six municipalities, including Mangaung. The ANC subsequently approached the Electoral Court to seek the reinstatement of the candidates, but the application was dismissed. The party’s bid for leave to appeal that decision is due to be heard by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) on Monday, 12 October.