The ANC’s national top brass has taken charge of the selection process of all of its more than 250 mayoral candidates ahead of next year’s municipal elections, to arrest the party's predicted further decline in electoral support.
The ANC said in a document outlining candidate selection criteria that it was tightening its local government candidate selection processes to ensure it fields the best candidates possible.
This comes as the ANC is expected to hold national executive committee within a fortnight, where it will craft its election strategy. According to its 2026 rules of engagement regarding candidate selection for municipal councils, the ANC states that top officials will select the party's candidates for all mayoral posts.
This role has previously been left to the regional and provincial leaders, with the national leaders only deciding metro mayoral candidates. However, the ANC has now decided to depart from that practice, arguably due to its previous poor election results and polling predicting a further decline.
The party says that extended provincial executive committees (PEC), including its alliance partners, will recommend three mayoral candidates per municipality from among the nominated councillor candidates.
It states that no candidate who has served two full terms as a mayor may be considered for a third term and that “at least two of the three mayoral candidates recommended by the PEC must be female. Current first-term female mayors on the councillor lists must automatically be included amongst the three mayoral candidates recommended by the PEC and concerted efforts to ensure that female mayors also serve two full terms shall be made subject to performance.”
The document says that should the extended PECs wish to include one person who is not yet a nominee, but who will bring capacity, experience, expertise and popularity, they may do so, for one of the three mayoral nominations, provided the majority of the extended PEC supports this nomination. After this process, the candidates will be interviewed by duly appointed interview panels comprised of NEC members or national officials.
“If the national officials are not satisfied that some of the candidates meet the criteria, they may add at least two more names to be considered through interviews. All candidates shall be subjected to the same interview process.”
The document states that branches must be revived with support and guidance from the regional, provincial and national leaders and that all election campaigns, particularly at local government level, should emanate from the branches, which must be functional, efficient, and alive to the needs of the local people that they serve.
It says that “the powers and duties of branches must be fully restored and respected to ensure that we have political programmes which are developed and implemented by branches”.
The ANC is also expected to discuss whether it should release the names of its mayoral candidates before the elections. Some are of the view that this would help the party retain ground should it choose to select credible candidates in strategic municipalities, while others fear it may stir negative reactions.
The ANC is under pressure to deliver capable leaders who can contend with its competitors in local government, particularly the DA, which has announced Cilliers Brink as its mayoral candidate in Tshwane. Veteran DA leader Helen Zille has raised her hand for the mayoral position in Johannesburg.
Some ANC leaders in Gauteng have expressed scepticism over the current Johannesburg mayor, Dada Morero, retaining his position as the party's mayoral candidate.
One provincial leader said: “There is a view that perhaps we should treat Johannesburg and other metros as a special case where we don't choose from the crop of candidates in the regional executive, but rather we choose people who have an impeccable record.
“For instance, in Johannesburg Parks Tau is someone who is still respected. He was an excellent mayor and he would be a great candidate against Helen [Zille]. We cannot afford to choose people based on their numbers and support in the regions; it has to be about performance.”
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