National executive committee member Andile Lungisa is not the only person whose name did not make it onto the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) list, ANC treasurer-general Gwen Ramokgopa says, adding that his situation was not unique.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian in a podcast last week, Ramokgopa said one of the party's mayoral candidates in Johannesburg, Frank Chikane, did not make it onto the list and that one or two people in Tshwane were facing the same issue.
"If you remember, I was the mayor of the City of Tshwane. It was the same situation; my name only made it onto the IEC lists under the ANC after the elections. It's something that we manage all the time," she said.
A week ago, Lungisa filed urgent court papers in the Johannesburg High Court challenging his removal from the party's mayoral candidates list before the local government elections.
In his court papers, Lungisa said he had been placed at the top of the list and that the provincial list confirmed his position as the highest-placed person for the Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral post.
Lungisa said he had been confidentially informed that Mbalula had personally instructed ANC functionaries responsible for the administrative compilation and submission of the names to remove his name from the list, which they then did.
"It is this decision that I ask the court to declare to be unlawful in terms of the ANC guidelines and seek an order declaring that my name was indeed on the list of ANC candidates and was improperly removed at the illegal instruction of Mr Mbalula."
Ramokgopa said that if Lungisa was not happy with the feedback from Mbalula's office, he could have approached the officials instead of rushing to court.
"Sometimes we take the issue of access to court to the extreme. It is his right. It is not only his situation where the name of the candidate who was unveiled did not make it onto the ballot," Ramokgopa said.
"Our commitment is that once we have finalised the names and have access to the PR lists, we will add those who make it and were not on the PR list after the elections."
An ANC source, who spoke to the M&G on Monday, said Lungisa's situation could easily be resolved and that there was no need for the court action against Mbalula.
"The IEC will allow for changes before the council is constituted. The last name on the list can be removed and he can be placed as number one on the list," the source said.
Ramokgopa also described the court battle between Mbalula and NEC member Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as painful.
Mbalula is demanding that Dlamini-Zuma retract her statements that he dished out money to delegates at the party's 2022 national conference, which saw him elected secretary-general.
The matter was in court last week. Judgment has been reserved.
"It's a painful thing when leaders take each other to court. Again, like I've said in the matter of Lungisa, it is their right to utilise institutions of democracy," Ramokgopa said.
"Again, it would have been better if the matter was dealt with by the Integrity Commission. Democracy is available to all of us; we just encourage our members to exhaust our internal processes."
Ramokgopa also weighed in on those who had been calling for Mbalula's removal after the party failed to submit 181 councillor candidates to the IEC across provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.
Last Wednesday, the Electoral Court dismissed the ANC's case relating to a dispute over the submission of councillor candidate lists to the IEC.
Mbalula's detractors in the party have called for a special NEC meeting to deal with him. They believe he is to blame for the party's failure to submit its lists.
Mbalula has, however, made it clear that he would not voluntarily resign but would do so if the ANC said he should.
"We would like our members and those who vote for the ANC to appreciate the bigger picture: [a total of] 97% of wards have been submitted. We have discussed the issue and we have asked the electoral committee, led by [Kgalema] Motlanthe, to really investigate with urgency," she said.
"As the NEC, we had long finalised the issues and we knew that the teams that were to submit, led by the secretary-general's office, were ready. The submission was done; it [happened at] the pressing of a button. But we will accept the outcome of the appeal."