Andile Lungisa takes ANC to court over election exclusion
JOHANNESBURG — ANC National Executive Committee member Andile Lungisa has taken his own party to court after it excluded him from its candidate list for Nelson Mandela Bay, setting up a legal test over whether party membership and leadership positions give candidates any claim to represent the ANC in an election.
The Johannesburg High Court is expected to decide whether the ANC was entitled to prevent Lungisa from standing as one of its candidates in the 4 November local government elections. Lungisa has cited the ANC, its NEC and secretary-general in his challenge to the decision.
The ANC says Lungisa was excluded after its candidate vetting process identified adverse information, including his criminal conviction and sentence, which the party says places him outside criteria adopted by the NEC for candidate nominees.
Lungisa was convicted in 2018 of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after striking Democratic Alliance councillor Rayno Kayser with a glass water jug during a chaotic Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting in 2016. He was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment, with part of the sentence suspended, and his conviction and sentence were subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The dispute is significant because Lungisa is not an ordinary party member seeking nomination. He currently serves on the ANC’s highest decision-making structure between national conferences, but the party maintains that this does not exempt him from the rules applied to prospective candidates.
The ANC said everyone seeking to contest an election under its banner is required to undergo vetting and that membership or service in party structures does not automatically create an entitlement to public office.
The High Court case will determine whether the party acted lawfully in applying those internal criteria to Lungisa and excluding him from its Nelson Mandela Bay list.
The dispute comes during an already difficult candidate registration period for the ANC. The party is separately fighting to preserve its representation in several municipalities after failing to submit proportional representation candidate lists in six municipalities in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. That matter has been escalated to the Constitutional Court.
In September, the Electoral Court dismissed an ANC application linked to its failure to complete the submission of 181 candidates before the deadline. The ANC argued that candidate information had been uploaded and demonstrated its intention to contest, while the Electoral Commission maintained that the legally required submission process had not been completed and that its records showed no technical failure.
Lungisa’s case is different because his exclusion resulted from the ANC’s own candidate vetting process rather than a missed IEC submission deadline.
With the municipal elections scheduled for 4 November, the High Court’s decision will determine whether Lungisa can return to the ANC’s candidate list or whether the party’s decision to exclude one of its own NEC members will stand.
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