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- The ANC's national leadership is expected to approve the final list of ward and proportional list candidates.
- The ConCourt still has to decide whether to postpone the elections to next year.
- The candidate selection process will be overseen by the ANC's electoral committee, which is chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe.
The ANC's special extended national executive committee (NEC) is expected to, on Saturday, approve the final list of approximately 10 000 ward and proportional list candidates for the local government elections.
The move comes ahead of the Constitutional Court having to decide on Friday whether the municipal elections should be postponed to next year as per the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) recommendation - or to continue with the initial date of Friday, 27 October.
The extended committee will be composed of NEC members as well as representatives of ANC provinces, the Women's League, Veterans' League, National Youth Task Team, the SA Communist Party, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
The deadline for submission of candidates is Monday, 23 August.
The party's deputy secretary, Jessie Duarte, said: "The ANC has successfully applied to be joined as a party to the IEC's application for extension of the local government elections, based on the recommendations of the inquiry by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke.
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"The ANC has strengthened its candidate selection process to ensure that the most credible, representative and capable team of ANC councillors are selected to contest the elections."
The national working committee (NWC), which met virtually on Monday, 16 August, to conduct its ongoing work said the candidate selection process will be overseen by the ANC's electoral committee, chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe.
"The ANC rules for candidate selection provide for maximum popular participation in the choice of who should represent the people as ward councillors."
Duarte said:
Duarte said, where communities preferred a different candidate from the four nominated by the ANC branch, they were asked to nominate an additional ANC candidate.
"The final candidate was chosen from among all nominees in an open community vote across all voting districts in the ward.
"The person, who received the most votes, is now the ANC ward candidate, provided they comply with the requirements set out in the Constitution and the ANC rules for candidate selection," she said.
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ANC PR candidates, nominated by ANC branches, would be subjected to a vetting and screening process, as well as approval by extended provincial executive committees, which would include alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu.
"Mayoral candidates will be confirmed once candidates have been approved and after an interview process by the extended PEC and the NEC.
"The extended NEC is the final step in a process designed to ensure that the ANC fields a highly capable and representative team to improve the capacity of our municipalities to deliver services, and to improve social and economic development for all communities in South Africa," Duarte said.
Postponement of NEC lekgotla
The NWC decided that, given the urgency of finalising local government candidates, the NEC lekgotla - scheduled for 21-23 August - should be postponed to a later date.
Duarte said the lekgotla would assess the implementation of the undertakings in the ANC elections manifesto by the government, and guide planning for the remainder of 2021 and 2022.
"The lekgotla will focus on economic reconstruction and recovery; climate change and a just transition; combating the Covid-19 pandemic and socio-economic interventions to deal with its effects; peace and stability, and fighting crime and corruption; building a capable developmental state through the district development model, as well as strengthening local government," she said.
Meanwhile, the party welcomed and expressed its support for the changes to the Cabinet, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the announcement of Kaobitsa "Bushy" Maape as the new Premier of North West, and the election of Jolidee Matongo and Mxolisi Siyonzana as the executive mayors of Johannesburg and Mangaung.
