The ANC clinched a crucial win at the Constitutional Court on Thursday morning, with South Africa’s top court overturning the Electoral Court ruling and directing the IEC to take all necessary steps to ensure the party’s 181 candidates are included on the ballot papers for next month’s local government elections.
The decision brings an end to the dispute over six municipalities where the party’s lists were initially disqualified for missing the final click on the IEC portal, a technicality the ANC argued should not override its substantial compliance before the deadline.
In the judgement with major political implications, the Constitutional Court found in favour of the governing party after it challenged its exclusion from contesting in six municipalities.
Announcing the ruling, Justice Rammaka Mathopo granted the ANC’s leave to appeal and set aside the Electoral Court’s judgement that had upheld the rejection of the party’s candidate lists.
“Leave to appeal has been granted. The ruling of the Electoral Court has been set aside,” the court said.
Mathopo said the details of the decision would come at a later stage.
The judgement brings to an end a high-stakes legal battle that centred on whether the ANC’s failure to click the IEC’s final electronic submission button should invalidate candidate lists that had otherwise been completed and uploaded before the deadline.
The ANC argued that it had fulfilled every substantive requirement of the electoral process before the 5pm deadline on 28 August, including the completion of electronic forms and the uploading of all required supporting documents.
Representing the party, Advocate Daniel Berger told the Constitutional Court that neither the Local Government: Municipal Electoral Act nor the accompanying regulations expressly require political parties to press an additional button for their submissions to be valid.
“The ANC seeks no condonation, no extra time, nor to place any extra information before the Commission,” Berger argued. “The ANC asks only to have its compliance judged according to the law, properly interpreted.”
The IEC, however, maintained that the final confirmation step formed an integral part of the submission process and that the ANC’s exclusion was a direct consequence of its own failure to comply.
But the Constitutional Court sided with the ANC’s interpretation, effectively finding that a technical omission should not outweigh substantial compliance with the law.
The ruling ensures that all 181 ANC candidates across the affected municipalities will now be eligible to contest the elections, dealing a significant blow to the opposition parties that had hoped to capitalize on the ANC’s exclusion.
An emotional ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula fought back tears as he addressed journalists outside the court.
“The Constitution has spoken,” Mbalula said, his voice breaking with emotion.
“We are deeply grateful to the Constitutional Court for upholding the democratic rights of South Africans. This victory is not just for the ANC. It is a victory for democracy, for voters and for constitutional justice.”
He thanked the party’s legal team, ANC members and supporters who stood behind the organisation throughout the legal challenge.
“We never asked for special treatment. We asked only for fairness and for the law to be applied correctly. Today the court agreed. The Constitution has spoken, and democracy has won.”