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Supporters of the African National Congress
African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has announced in Durban that the party will be launching its local government election (LGE) campaign in July.
This after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the election date as the 4th of November.
Mbalula says the party is geared up for the elections and that it will be contesting municipalities right across KwaZulu-Natal, even in areas where they don’t enjoy strong support.
Mbalula was addressing a reshuffled provincial task team and regional task teams of the party in KwaZulu-Natal after its support plummeted from 54% in 2019 to 17% in the 2024 general elections.
Mbalula is nonetheless optimistic, ” The date of the elections has been announced. We launch our campaign in July. This announcement is meeting us on the highway, rebuilding the structures. Tomorrow it will be May Day. We will be supporting Cosatu and the workers. ‘Highway’ means we are on the run. We have been working on rebuilding the organisation’s roots and branches. We don’t know politics or parties or what they do. We are only confronting what is against us.”
[WATCH] WE ARE DONE TALKING ABOUT OTHER PARTIES AND ARE FOCUSED ON THE ELECTIONS.
We have briefed structures, we have spoken to the province and the regions about the outcomes of the special NEC meeting. The decision of the NEC has been fully endorsed by all 53 regions and… pic.twitter.com/vrnfpTvq0r
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) April 30, 2026
Meanwhile, the new coordinator of the provincial task team, James Nxumalo, has unequivocally sided with the ANC in this election.
He is also a member of the SACP’s central committee – an ANC ally which has announced that it will contest the elections on its own for the first time.
This is in response to the ANC issuing a May 11 deadline for people with dual membership to declare whether they will be campaigning for the ANC.
Nxumalo says he has been an ANC member from a young age.
“And then ever since 1994, when we voted for the first time in South Africa, I’ve been voting for the African National Congress. And again this time around there’s no question about it; I will be voting for the ANC. And then secondly is that, as I am here now, I have been deployed by the African National Congress and appointed to be part of the task team in the province of KwaZulu-Natal to rebuild the African National Congress and to make sure that the ANC wins the forthcoming local government election.”
Local Government Elections set for 4th November 2026:
