ANC Removes Over 350 Council Candidates Before November Local Elections

A last-minute purge of candidate councillors, with no clear replacement plan, signals internal disarray within South Africa's governing party ahead of a nationally consequential municipal vote.

South Africa's African National Congress has removed more than 350 candidate councillors from its lists ahead of the 4 November 2026 local government elections, according to Daily Maverick. The removals were made at a late stage in the candidate selection process, with no publicly announced replacement framework.

The decision affects the ANC's preparedness for municipal elections that will determine control of local governments across the country. Local government elections in South Africa govern service delivery functions including water, sanitation, electricity distribution, and housing development at the ward and metropolitan level.

Agri Eastern Cape, the agricultural industry body for that province, sought legal opinion as of September 6, 2026 on whether municipalities could be held liable for farmer losses linked to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease through stray animals or animals grazing on municipal land, according to Daily Maverick. That inquiry underscores broader tensions between municipalities and the agricultural sector heading into the November vote, and points to municipal governance as a live issue for rural and peri-urban voters.

The scale of the ANC candidate removals, more than 350 individuals across party structures, raises procedural questions about how replacements will be identified, vetted, and registered within electoral commission timelines. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) sets firm deadlines for candidate list submissions, and late changes require formal processes that can be difficult to complete quickly.

Daily Maverick's analysis characterises the removal process as a "purge without a plan," noting that it exposes organisational weakness within the ANC's branch structures. Branch-level weakness has been a documented concern for the ANC in previous election cycles, particularly following its loss of outright control in major metropolitan municipalities in the 2021 local government elections.

In those 2021 elections, the ANC received approximately 46 percent of the national vote, its lowest result in a local government election since 1994, according to IEC results. The party lost outright majorities in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, and Nelson Mandela Bay, among others. It subsequently regained some of those municipalities through coalition arrangements, but coalition governments in several metros have remained unstable.

The November 2026 elections therefore carry significant weight for the ANC's effort to consolidate or recover local government control. Any reduction in candidate quality or coverage resulting from the late removals could affect the party's ability to contest all available ward seats and proportional representation lists competitively.

The risk of internal resistance is also noted in the Daily Maverick report. Councillor candidates who are removed from lists after having campaigned or organised within their wards may retain local networks and voter relationships. If those individuals or their supporters withhold campaign support or mobilise against the party in specific wards, the effect on margins in competitive constituencies could be material.

Voter apathy is a separate but related variable. South Africa's local government elections have historically recorded lower turnout than national elections. The IEC reported a voter turnout of approximately 46 percent in the 2021 local government elections, compared with roughly 66 percent in the 2019 national elections. Visible internal conflict within a major party can reduce enthusiasm among its base, though the precise electoral effect depends on opposition strength ward by ward.

The ANC has not issued a public statement, as of the date of this report, explaining the criteria used to select which candidates were removed or what process governs their replacement. The party's national and provincial spokespeople had not provided comment to Daily Maverick by the time of publication on September 6, 2026. What would clarify the situation is a formal statement from the ANC's National Executive Committee or its electoral preparedness structures specifying the grounds for removal and the replacement timeline.