Embattled ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa has hauled his own party and its secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to the High Court, after he was abruptly removed as the ANC’s mayoral candidate for Nelson Mandela Bay.
In urgent court papers filed on Friday and seen by Africa Daily, Lungisa is asking the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to declare his removal from the party’s proportional representation list unlawful and to force Mbalula to reinstate him.
The papers were filed electronically by his legal representative, Makangela Mtungani.
“The removal of the name of the applicant from the proportional representative listed candidates for ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay is declared to be unconstitutional, unlawful, invalid and of no force or effect,” the court papers state.
In the papers, Mbalula, as the first respondent and the custodian of the ANC’s candidate lists who correspondents with the Electoral Commission, is directed to ensure that Lungisa’s name is put back on the list.
The ANC and Mbalula have been given until Monday to respond.
The court action is the latest explosion in a massive internal administrative meltdown inside the ANC ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
Lungisa, a long-time powerbroker in the Eastern Cape, had been strongly backed by regional branches and ANC structures in Nelson Mandela Bay to lead the party’s charge to retmetro with an outright majority.
His campaign had gathered momentum in recent months as the ANC sought a popular local face to wrestle the Bay back from the coalition led by the DA and its partners.
That ambition collapsed last week when a registration blunder left several top ANC officials — including Lungisa — completely off the proportional representation candidate lists submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
The IEC fiasco has thrown the ANC’s candidate process in Nelson Mandela Bay into chaos, with accusations flying inside Luthuli House that lists were tampered with and names smuggled in at the last minute.
Lungisa’s papers argue that his removal was procedurally flawed, unconstitutional, and invalid, and that Mbalula has a legal duty to correct it.
The error has forced the ANC to approach the courts itself in other provinces to reopen lists, while in the Eastern Cape, Lungisa has decided to fight his own party head-on.
Sources close to Lungisa said he views his removal not as an administrative mistake but as a deliberate political purge by factions opposed to his mayoral ambitions, including the ANC Veterans’ League which has long clashed with him.
Despite being left off the ANC list, Lungisa has refused to jump ship.
Following his exclusion, opposition parties, including the People’s Power, are understood to have offered him a PR seat to contest under their banner.
He rejected the offer, insisting his loyalty remains with the ANC and that he will fight for what he believes is his rightful slot.
“I remain a member of the ANC,” he has told supporters in Nelson Mandela Bay in recent days.
Other ANC insiders said this case puts Mbalula, as secretary-general, squarely in the firing line.
“As SG, Mbalula is the accounting officer who signs off on candidate lists to the IEC. He has been picking and closing as he likes. It’s not fair,” he said
The party is already reeling from candidate list disputes across the country, a court battle with one of its own NEC members — the highest decision exposed the depth of factional warfare just weeks before the elections.
The Gauteng High Court is expected to hear the matter on an urgent basis next week if Mbalula and Luthuli House fail to reach a political settlement before Monday.
Neither the ANC nor Mbalula had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.