By Simon Nare
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said on Tuesday that candidates for mayoral positions ahead of the 2026 local government elections will be subjected to public participation processes and will be required to take up ANC membership.
Mbalula said the ANC had broken with its traditional practice of only fielding members in good standing, and would now also consider candidates nominated by communities to stand under the party’s banner.
He said individuals who had embraced the ANC and were endorsed by community members would be eligible to serve under its banner.
He added that some current ANC councillors serving under the party’s name were not members in good standing, and said the same approach would now apply to mayoral candidates.
“So, we are following the same pattern when it comes to mayors. It is something new. We are introducing something that is called by mandate of the National General Council and the NEC, central control of mayors,” he said.
“You will need a person who has gone through the eye of the needle, with all capabilities that individual can possess to run a city like Johannesburg rather than just leave it to chance. That is why we infused centrality, popular participation, but at the same time head-hunting to look at people who have skills and capacity to run these cities and drive development and service delivery,” he said.
He said national officials would ultimately interview candidates, with the party expected to announce its mayoral candidates by 26 June 2026 to campaign ahead of the elections.
“The work of every cadre, every branch, every region and every province of the African National Congress now converges on the date of the local government elections of 4 November 2026,” Mbalula said.
“The ANC carries into this period the standing inheritance of its canon — the Freedom Charter, on which the ANC has rested for over seven decades, and which we shall again commemorate on Freedom Charter Day on 26 June 2026.”
Mbalula further said the NEC had confirmed eight municipalities under active Inter-Ministerial Committee intervention for performance turnaround, and directed the North West PEC to table a provincial stabilisation plan.
He said the Local Government Action Plan, now six months into implementation, had been ratified in its current pillar ratings.
“The NEC subcommittee on local government interventions has been directed to segment the work into short-, medium- and long-term horizons within 14 days,” he said.
On infrastructure, Mbalula said ANC deployees in government had been instructed to prioritise roads, water and electricity delivery.
“These are the immediate things that touch the lives of our people. Where water scarcity is most acute, the NEC resolved that no community should be without water, and that immediate implementation of boreholes and spring water connections must be rolled out,” he said.
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