ANC mayoral candidates for South Africa’s eight metros were not named on Saturday, 22 August 2026, with the party instead releasing a shortlist of 42 possible contenders at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
Names had been expected for the local government elections on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, ahead of the party’s manifesto launch in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, on Sunday, 23 August 2026, as reported by Daily Maverick.
The selection process was widened instead.
How the ANC mayoral candidates list was drawn up
Regional structures did not determine the field. Nominations were opened to the public alongside ANC branches and other party structures, and the names put forward were then screened, vetted and interviewed before the shortlist was published.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said 226 people were put forward for consideration across roughly 50 municipalities and all nine provinces. He had set the party’s benchmark for the exercise in blunter terms, saying the ANC was looking for “the best of the best”.
President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the delay directly, saying the party had “heard people’s concerns about the state of our municipalities” and that residents had complained about leaders and councillors who were “unable or unwilling to respond to their needs”. Ramaphosa added:
“These are realities that, as the ANC, we refuse to shy away from. These are realities that we are determined and committed to confront and correct.”
Where the shortlist produced internal contests
In Johannesburg, incumbent mayor Dada Morero appeared on a shortlist that also carried deputy mayor Loyiso Masuku, who beat him for the ANC’s regional chairmanship in the city in 2025. Relations between the two had been strained since.
Reverend Frank Chikane, 75, had been seen as the front-runner and as the figure best placed to face the Democratic Alliance’s Helen Zille. He was reportedly advised by his family to withdraw over concerns about his health and the state of Johannesburg.
Ekurhuleni produced a similar picture. Incumbent mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza, in office since April 2024 and the metro’s fourth mayor in four years, was shortlisted alongside his finance portfolio head, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, with whom he had been at odds.
What the ANC mayoral candidates were up against
The ANC’s share of the local government vote fell from 62% in 2011 to 53.9% in 2016 and 47.5% in 2021. A recent Social Research Foundation poll placed the party at 34% nationally, ahead of the DA on 27%.
Most rivals had already settled the question. The Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters, ActionSA, Patriotic Alliance and Inkatha Freedom Party had all named their candidates, with some campaigning for months, leaving uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) and the ANC as the outliers.
That national lead did not hold everywhere. The same poll put the ANC behind the DA in Gauteng’s three metros, while eThekwini stood as its most vulnerable major metro, its KwaZulu-Natal support base fractured by MK’s strength.
Final selections rested with the ANC’s national officials, who were expected to name the mayoral candidates in September 2026. That left the party roughly two months to convert 42 shortlisted names into eight metro campaigns before voting on Wednesday, 4 November 2026.
