A group of disgruntled ANC members in the Eastern Cape have written to the party, demanding that the national executive committee (NEC) be stopped from proceeding with the adoption of the councillor list.
In a letter dated 24 August, which the Mail & Guardian has seen, a law firm representing the disgruntled members wrote to secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and the party’s electoral commission chairperson, Kgalema Motlanthe, demanding that the ANC not proceed with the finalisation of its councillor candidate list.
On Tuesday, the ANC convened a special NEC meeting to finalise the councillor list process.
If the litigants take the matter to court and win, it could leave the ANC without council representatives in the province, a move that would benefit its rivals in the Eastern Cape.
The letter said the members had specifically instructed the law firm to inform Mbalula that any failure to urgently address the matters they had raised “will inevitably lead to unnecessary legal action at the instance of our clients”.
“As always, it is not their wish to drag their own organisation to court but if need be, and as a matter of last resort in order to protect their constitutional rights, they will not hesitate to do so,” the letter read.
Last week, the M&G reported that the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) is targeting the Eastern Cape as part of a strategy to weaken the ANC in two of its strongest provinces and push the governing party’s national support to around 30% by the 2029 elections.
The Eastern Cape, where the ANC won 62.2% of the vote in the 2024 national election, has become a focus for the Jacob Zuma-led party as the ANC battles a leadership crisis and court challenges that have left its provincial structures in turmoil.
The ANC’s Eastern Cape provincial elective conference was stopped by a court order in March after its members Lwazi Rotya, Sinethemba Mpande and Nompumelelo Mzotywa challenged the conference process, raising concerns about branch processes, delegate verification and accreditation.
With the conference unable to proceed and the term of the provincial executive committee having expired, the ANC’s NEC appointed a provincial task team (PTT) in May to oversee the province.
The decision was challenged by Rotya, Mpande and Mzotywa, who argued that the appointment of the task team was unconstitutional, unlawful and in breach of the ANC’s rules.
The ANC has lost its attempt to overturn the ruling and is planning to appeal it.
The dispute has left the ANC’s provincial leadership in a state of uncertainty, providing an opening for the MK Party to attack the party in a province that remains central to its national electoral strength.
An MK Party source told the M&G last week that the fighing in the ANC in the province was giving the party an upper hand, while sources in the ANC said they were aware that some people in their ranks had been working with the MK Party to destabilise the ANC through litigation.
The letter said the clients had been engaged in litigation as part of a process to protect the integrity of the ANC’s processes from being hijacked.
“The latest engagement being the challenge at Makhanda High Court wherein Noncembu ADJP delivered a judgment on 18 June 2026.
“With this judgment and the ANC as an organisation subscribing to the rule of law, it came as a surprise that the judgment continued to be disregarded.”
The letter said the ANC had embarked on a process of nominating councillor candidates under its adopted guidelines, adding that the process had excluded the leadership of the Eastern Cape province, as pronounced by the high court.
“The ANC processes that would involve a branch general meeting nominating candidates, then the community meeting and thereafter the branch general meeting have been flouted.
“This is exactly what happened at Ward 20 of the Dr WB Rubusana region, wherein the community meeting did not sit and ultimately the last branch general meeting as well.
“Our clients have instructed us that this was not an isolated incident and, on the contrary, such violations are known to be widespread across the Eastern Cape province, affecting the vast majority of the regions,” the letter read.
“It is also a well-established fact that the appeals lodged by many aggrieved members and branches remain unattended or incomplete.
“In such a chaotic situation, characterised by illegality and recklessness over the past few months in the Eastern Cape province, which has been allowed to fester by the secretary-general and his NEC deployees, it is simply unimaginable how the organisation expects to have any legally valid processes and outcomes.”
A senior ANC source, speaking on the sidelines of the special NEC meeting, said the party was aware of the plan to destabilise it in the province.
“There are people in the ANC working with [Jacob] Zuma and the MK Party to collapse the ANC in the Eastern Cape,” the source said.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the special NEC meeting, Mbalula said the ANC was clear that it was dealing with a determined force.
Mbalula said the ANC was, however, ready to answer the issues that had been raised, adding that the party was prepared to deal with the matter.
“We are dealing with a rigorous process of litigation in the Eastern Cape and we are dealing with a very powerful force that is beyond us. It is not just the ANC; it’s very powerful and it manifests itself through litigation.
“We are in court on the matter of the conference. We have been in court on the matter of the establishment of the PTT, in terms of the processes we have followed and in terms of the structures of the existence.”