The ANC has postponed the announcement of its mayoral candidates for eight metropolitan municipalities and 44 district municipalities until September, despite the 2026 local government elections being just months away and rival political parties already forging ahead with their campaigns.
The governing party had been expected to unveil its mayoral candidates at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday as it intensifies preparations for the 4 November polls.
Instead, the party presented its mayoral finalists — those who have made it through its selection and interview process with the final candidates only set to be announced next month.
The delay has raised questions about the ANC’s readiness for the elections, particularly as several opposition parties have already announced mayoral candidates and begun campaigning across municipalities.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, however, defended the ANC’s selection process, describing it as one of the most rigorous undertaken by any political party in the country.
Addressing the party’s gathering in Sandton on Saturday, Ramaphosa said more than 1 500 people had been put forward and nominated during the process, which was also opened to members of the public for the first time.
“Today, comrades, we introduce the nominated comrades who are the finalists for the mayor’s position, who after this rigorous process meet the standards, possess the qualities and demonstrate the capabilities that our people expect of their local leaders,” Ramaphosa said.
“It is from these nominated comrades who are the finalists for the mayor’s position that our mayoral candidates will be drawn.”
Ramaphosa said candidates had undergone interviews and assessments examining their leadership ability, integrity, experience and understanding of local government.
According to the president, the process deliberately sought to move the ANC away from selecting candidates on the basis of popularity or a sense of entitlement within party structures.
“We have not simply asked who is most popular or who has served the longest,” he said.
“We have asked who has the integrity, the competence, the experience, the commitment required to restore municipalities and to serve our communities.”
Candidates were also expected to demonstrate their understanding of the specific municipalities they hoped to lead, including challenges involving service delivery, economic development, municipal finances and administration.
They were questioned on how they would address water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal, as well as infrastructure maintenance, investment and support for small businesses.
Ramaphosa said some of the interviews continued until as late as 2am as the party sought to thoroughly assess those seeking mayoral positions.
His remarks come as the ANC faces a significant electoral test in local government, where the party has acknowledged widespread failures in municipalities it governs.
Ramaphosa conceded that despite improvements in the provision of housing, electricity, water, sanitation and other basic services over the past three decades, many South Africans continued to experience failing municipal services.
“Many of our people are confronted by taps that run dry, by refuse that is not collected, by potholes that are not fixed, by grass that is not cut,” he said.
“Some of our municipalities are unable to pay their bills or maintain their infrastructure. There are others that suffer from leadership instability, poor management, corruption and wastage.”
Ramaphosa said the ANC would not shy away from those failures.
“We have heard people’s concerns about the state of our municipalities. We’ve heard their complaints about those mayors and councillors that are unable or unwilling to respond to their needs.”
The president placed much of the emphasis on the quality of political leadership, arguing that local government was the sphere where South Africans experienced the state most directly.
“In local government, leadership matters because the quality of leadership determines whether there is service delivery, whether there is infrastructure development, whether officials of council and the councillors become servants of the people, and whether the residents experience that government is advancing their interests,” he said.
Ramaphosa warned those who eventually emerge as the ANC’s mayoral candidates that public office should not be regarded as a reward or entitlement.
He said residents expected mayors to be present not only when projects were launched but also when services failed.
“Our people expect budgets that are spent on time, audits that come back clean and tenders that are awarded on merit, not because people are connected to other people in the municipality,” Ramaphosa said.
“We expect you to treat every rand of public money as money that belongs to the people and not to yourselves or to your family.”
The ANC also plans to subject those eventually elected to a performance monitoring system, with Ramaphosa saying municipalities and their political leadership would effectively be placed on the party’s “radar screen”.
According to Ramaphosa, the system would allow the party to track the activities and programmes of mayors and other senior municipal office bearers against predetermined performance indicators.
The ANC would then intervene where its deployees failed to perform, he said.
The party’s decision to hold back the final mayoral candidates nevertheless means voters will have to wait until September to know who the ANC intends to put forward to lead some of the country’s most important municipalities.
The announcement will come during the final stretch towards the 4 November elections and against the backdrop of opposition parties already putting faces to their local government campaigns.
The ANC is expected to shift its campaign into a higher gear on Sunday when it launches its 2026 Local Government Election manifesto, which Ramaphosa said would set out the programme its councillors and eventual mayors would be expected to implement.
“We will not fail the people who have trusted us with their votes,” Ramaphosa said.
“We will not fail the communities still waiting for clean water, reliable power and safe streets.”