By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has ruled that the African National Congress (ANC) decision to remove National Executive Committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa from its proportional representation (PR) candidate list for Nelson Mandela Bay was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Lungisa filed a high court application against the ANC and Secretary General Fikile Mbalula last month over his removal from the list.
He submitted that Mbalula unlawfully ordered his deletion during a meeting with ANC functionaries at a Johannesburg hotel.
Lungisa was announced as a shortlisted mayoral candidate at a party event on August 22, and the committee finalised the lists with his name on them around August 27.
Judge NP Mali on Friday, 09 October 2026, declared the removal of Lungisa unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid.
Mali found the ANC’s rules gave the secretary-general no power to change a final list on his own.
“A final list could apparently be altered by an individual office-bearer on the eve of the statutory deadline, notwithstanding the elaborate multi-stage process designed to ensure collective consideration and approval of candidates,” Mali said.
Mali ordered Mbalula, the ANC and its national executive committee to restore Lungisa’s name to the party’s internal list immediately and to pay his legal costs on the punitive attorney and client scale.
Lungisa’s eligibility has been contested since his mayoral bid became public in July. He was convicted of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after striking DA councillor Rano Kayser with a glass jug during a Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting in 2016, and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Lungisa has argued that the constitutional five-year disqualification period had expired after he completed his sentence in 2020.
Under the Constitution, anyone convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison without the option of a fine is disqualified from being elected as a councillor for five years after completing their sentence.
Lungisa and incumbent Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Babalwa Lobishe have emerged as the leading contenders for the ANC’s mayoral nomination in Nelson Mandela Bay, intensifying divisions within the party’s regional structures.