The ANC’s candidate-list problems in KwaZulu-Natal have exposed a series of capturing blunders that saw candidates swapped between wards, duplicated across different wards and omitted from the list.
ANC provincial coordinator James Nxumalo detailed the problems on Thursday during a briefing at the party’s provincial offices in KwaZulu-Natal, where he outlined the errors affecting the party’s candidate lists ahead of the local government elections.
The party said it wanted to be “upfront with the public” about the problems identified during the process.
Among the municipalities affected were eThekwini and Ray Nkonyeni, where several candidates were incorrectly captured against wards different from those for which they had originally been submitted.
The ANC maintains that the problems were not with the branch and community processes through which candidates were selected but occurred during the subsequent capturing and loading of the information.
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Candidate swaps in eThekwini
In eThekwini, candidates for Wards 65 and 90 were inadvertently swapped during the list-loading process.
Nxumalo said the original submission had been verified and that the candidates “must accordingly be restored to their correct respective wards”.
A similar administrative error was identified in eThekwini’s Wards 6 and 91, where the respective ward candidates were also swapped.
The ANC said the province had confirmed the original submissions and formally requested that the candidates be corrected and reflected against their respective wards.
Duplications and omissions in Ray Nkonyeni
The problems continued in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality, where one candidate was duplicated across three wards.
The ANC found that the candidate correctly submitted for Ward 36 had instead been reflected in Wards 3 and 16.
The province said it had verified the original submissions, identified the correct candidates for each affected ward and submitted the necessary corrections for implementation.
Another duplication was identified between Wards 34 and 19 in Ray Nkonyeni.
In this case, the same candidate appeared against both wards, resulting in the candidate who had been duly submitted for Ward 19 being omitted.
The province said it had confirmed the correct allocation and requested that the Ward 19 candidate be restored, while the Ward 34 candidate remains correctly allocated.
National intervention and scope of the errors
The ANC also acknowledged problems involving the Proportional Representation list in uMshwathi Local Municipality.
However, Nxumalo said the matter was being handled at national level and was subject to various processes.
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Despite the problems, the ANC said the overwhelming majority of its candidates in the province had been successfully captured.
Of the 2 001 candidates put forward across KwaZulu-Natal, the party said most were submitted without difficulty. The provincial task team said it had put structures and firm timeframes in place to deal with the remaining problems.
Broader IEC deadline disputes
The KZN problems form part of wider scrutiny of the ANC’s handling of its councillor candidate lists ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
The ANC failed to successfully submit 181 councillor candidates in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State before the IEC deadline, forcing the party to seek relief to have the affected lists accepted. The ANC insists it was due to a technical glitch just before the Electoral Commission of SA deadline of August 28, 17:00.
ANC’s only request is for the IEC to process candidate information that the party claimed had been submitted on time but was subsequently removed from the commission’s system.
The province said it would continue working through the outstanding matters while campaigning for what it hopes will be an “overwhelming victory” for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.
- The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal experienced candidate-list problems involving swapped, duplicated, and omitted candidates ahead of local government elections.
- In eThekwini, candidates for Wards 65 and 90, and separately Wards 6 and 91, were incorrectly swapped during the list-loading process.
- In Ray Nkonyeni Municipality, one candidate was duplicated across Wards 3, 16, and 36, and another candidate was duplicated between Wards 19 and 34, causing omissions.
- The ANC also acknowledged errors with the Proportional Representation list in uMshwathi Local Municipality, managed at the national level.
- Despite these issues, most of the 2,001 candidates in KwaZulu-Natal were submitted without problems, with structures in place to resolve remaining errors before the November 4 elections.
ANC provincial coordinator James Nxumalo detailed the problems on
READ: Fikile
In e
Nxumalo said the original submission had been verified and that the candidates “must accordingly be restored to their correct respective wards”.
A similar administrative error was identified in e
In this case, the same candidate appeared against both wards, resulting in the candidate who had been duly submitted for Ward 19 being omitted.
However, Nxumalo said the matter was being handled at national level and was subject to various processes.
READ:Moegoe:
Despite the problems, the ANC said the overwhelming majority of its candidates in the province had been successfully captured.
Of the 2 001 candidates put forward across KwaZulu-Natal, the party said most were submitted without difficulty.
ANC’s only request is for the IEC to process candidate information that the party claimed had been submitted on time but was subsequently removed from the commission’s system.
