ANC faces legal challenge over Buffalo City councillor nominations

According to The Citizen, Lwazi Rotya has launched legal action challenging the African National Congress’s councillor candidate selection process in Buffalo City metro, and has asked ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to intervene.

Allegations of sidelined nominations in WB Rubusana

Rotya’s lawyers, Sinawo Makangela of Makangela Mtungani Inc, sent a letter to Mbalula warning of legal action if the alleged violations are not addressed, The Citizen reports. Disgruntled branch members in the WB Rubusana region say the party flouted its selection rules: names of nominated members were removed and branch or community nomination meetings were not held.

Ward 20 and wider regional claims

The Citizen says Rotya cited Ward 20 specifically, where a community meeting to select candidates “failed to sit”, and he claimed this was not an isolated incident that across the Rubusana region community and branch meetings to select councillor candidates did not take place.

Legal history and potential consequences

The Citizen notes this could mark another court clash between Rotya and Luthuli House. Rotya previously obtained an interdict to stop the ANC Eastern Cape provincial conference and successfully challenged the appointment of an interim provincial task team, with a court declaring that appointment unlawful, The Citizen reports.

If the councillor selection process in Buffalo City is declared unlawful and void by a court, The Citizen says the ANC could be forced to restart the nominations. That outcome could leave the party with little time to meet the deadline to submit Buffalo City candidate lists to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, according to The Citizen.

What this means ahead of the local elections

The Citizen frames the dispute as part of a wider scramble within the ANC to finalise candidate lists ahead of the IEC deadline. The report links the nomination challenge to ongoing factional tensions in the province and the potential political implications for Buffalo City as parties prepare for the local elections.