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A Party at War With Its Own Ruling
The African National Congress has announced it will appeal a Johannesburg High Court ruling that declared the removal of Andile Lungisa from its Nelson Mandela Bay proportional representation candidate list both unlawful and unconstitutional. The court ordered the party to reinstate him — and the ANC is pushing back hard.
In an official statement, the party said it would “pursue appropriate legal remedies” while reaffirming its commitment to what it calls democratic centralism and the collective authority of its constitutional structures. Translation: the ANC wants to keep its internal candidate decisions firmly out of the courts’ reach.
The ruling, handed down by Judge NP Mali, found that ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula had acted unlawfully when he unilaterally removed Lungisa from the candidate list shortly before the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) deadline. The court declared the removal unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid — strong language that left no room for ambiguity.
Who Is Andile Lungisa — and Why Does This Matter?
Lungisa is no ordinary political figure. A member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, he was sentenced in May 2018 to three years in prison — one year suspended — after striking Democratic Alliance councillor Ryno Kayser with a glass water jug during a Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting in 2016. The charge: assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The ANC cited that conviction as the justification for removing him from the candidate list ahead of the November 4 local government elections. But the court found the process deeply flawed. Lungisa argued he was removed without due process, and Judge Mali agreed — finding that the ANC had failed to prove he had even missed the vetting process, which was the party’s central argument for his exclusion.
Due process matters. Even inside a political party.
The Ruling: What the Court Actually Said
Judge Mali’s judgment was direct and far-reaching. The court ordered Mbalula, the ANC and its National Executive Committee to immediately restore Lungisa’s name to the party’s internal list at Luthuli House. It also directed that, to the extent the IEC’s chief electoral officer allows the ANC to supplement its list under item 17(1) of Schedule 1 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, Lungisa’s name must be submitted as part of that supplementary list.
On top of that, the court ordered Mbalula, the ANC and the NEC to cover Lungisa’s legal costs — a stinging rebuke that signals just how seriously the bench viewed the procedural failures at play.
The timing, however, was brutal. The judgment came too late for Lungisa to actually appear on the ballot for the November 4 elections. So while the legal victory is real, its immediate political impact is limited.
A Crack in the ANC’s Armour
What makes this story genuinely significant is the internal fault line it has exposed. While Fikile Mbalula and the national leadership are clearly unhappy with the ruling, the Nelson Mandela Bay region of the ANC has openly welcomed it — putting the region on a direct collision course with Luthuli House.
That kind of public disagreement within a party that prides itself on unity is telling. It reveals how candidate selection processes — often opaque and driven by factional interests — can fracture a party from within when they bypass the rules.
The ANC’s decision to appeal is also strategic. Party leadership fears this ruling could set a precedent that opens the door to a wave of lawsuits and, more critically, shifts power over candidate selection from party structures to the judiciary. For an organisation built on the principle of internal collective decision-making, that prospect is deeply uncomfortable.
What Young South Africans Should Take Away
For young people watching South African politics, this case is a masterclass in how power actually works inside political parties. Candidate lists are not just administrative documents — they are instruments of political control. Who gets on a list, and who gets quietly removed, shapes the future of local governance in cities like Nelson Mandela Bay.
The court’s intervention here is a reminder that democratic accountability does not stop at a party’s front door. Internal party processes must meet constitutional standards — and when they don’t, the judiciary can and will step in.
Whether the ANC’s appeal succeeds or not, the damage to its image of procedural fairness is already done. And for a generation that increasingly demands transparency and accountability from its leaders, that matters more than any court order.
