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South African politics is heating up ahead of the November 4 Local Government Elections, and a major internal ANC dispute has now spilled into the courts. Andile Lungisa, a member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, has filed an urgent legal challenge against party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, accusing him of personally ordering his removal from the ANC’s candidate list for Nelson Mandela Bay — a move Lungisa says broke the party’s own rules.
The case, filed at the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, cuts to the heart of a bigger question: who actually holds power inside the ANC, and can party leaders bend internal rules when it suits them? Lungisa had been shortlisted as one of the ANC’s mayoral candidates for Nelson Mandela Bay, and he argues his candidacy had already cleared the party’s internal vetting structures before Mbalula allegedly intervened.
What makes this case particularly significant is that it exposes tensions not just between two powerful ANC figures, but between the party’s official rules and how power is actually exercised behind closed doors. For young South Africans watching this play out, it raises a sharper question: if a sitting NEC member can allegedly be erased from a candidate list by one official’s phone call, what does that say about accountability inside the country’s ruling party?
With elections weeks away and the IEC controversy still unresolved, the ANC is fighting legal battles on multiple fronts — and the outcome of Lungisa’s case could set a precedent for how far party leaders can stretch their authority before the courts push back.
