By Akani Nkuna
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula says tackling South Africa’s worsening water crisis will be one of the party’s central priorities ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections, with a renewed focus on upgrading infrastructure and ensuring a reliable water supply for communities affected by persistent disruptions.
“The biggest challenge we know this country must overcome is the challenge of water. One, in terms of infrastructure and at the same time, how do you address the question of water in relation to the expansion of communities in terms of urbanisation as a phenomenon? There is new settlement literally every day,” Mbalula said.
Speaking at a media briefing at Chief Albert Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Mbalula outlined the ANC’s position on current domestic and international developments and detailed the party’s programme of action ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
He said the ANC-led government under President Cyril Ramaphosa had identified ageing infrastructure and rapid population growth as key drivers of the country’s service delivery challenges.
Mbalula said the party had adopted an approach of identifying problems early to enable timely interventions.
Mbalula confirmed that the ANC’s mayoral candidate selection process was nearing completion, with more than 200 prospective candidates interviewed by members of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
“What remains is the most careful stage of all. The national officials, having done the interviews, will now go municipality by municipality through the painstaking task of deciding who is truly fit for the purpose in each council. Those candidates will be announced in the coming weeks,” he said.
The ANC will launch its election manifesto on 15 August in Riverpark, Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, where it will also unveil its mayoral candidates for the November elections.
“The ANC will in due course announce its mayoral candidates. We have concluded the process of interviews. We will announce them before our manifesto launch… We will register all our names by the first of September,” Mbalula said.
He said the party would field candidates in every municipality and that all nominees were undergoing a rigorous vetting process.
“We are registering more than 10 000 candidates. This campaign will be wall to wall and we will contest everywhere in the country. Our candidates are undergoing a rigorous process of vetting on criminal records or any implications. The ANC has never decided on candidates on its own; it has always involved the community. This is not new. The ANC must be allowed to follow its processes. Our campaign is not about personalities but about the ANC and what it will deliver to the communities of South Africa.”
Mbalula also rejected claims that the ANC’s local government strategy is centred on privatisation, dismissing suggestions that the party intends to rely on privatisation to resolve municipal challenges.
Describing 2026 as the year “to fix local government”, he said the ANC was implementing turnaround strategies focused on restoring basic municipal services while strengthening accountability.
“This is the year of decisive action to fix local government, and the ANC is doing the patient work it requires, intervening under the Constitution where councils have faltered, and driving turnaround on water, electricity, refuse and roads through our Local Government Interventions programme. On the withholding of grants to struggling municipalities, we hold two truths together: public money must never be stolen or wasted, and that discipline must be exercised within the constitutional order, through Parliament, which divides the nation’s revenue. Firmness and the Constitution, together,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula also raised concern over the rising cost of living, attributing increasing economic pressures in part to global geopolitical tensions, including conflict involving the United States and Iran.
“We are part of the family of nations. We are not an island as South Africa on our own. We trade with others, and as war and everything else happen around us, it affects us directly, because the cost of living at home is tied to peace in far off waters,” he said.
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