JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — The African National Congress (ANC) has officially unveiled its shortlisted mayoral candidates ahead of the 2026 local government elections, signaling a decisive shift toward capability and tangible service delivery. While the newly announced list represents a rigorous narrowing of the field, the party emphasized that these are not yet the final mayoral appointments, with the ultimate candidates expected to be confirmed in September.
ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula described the candidate selection as a “hard but honest process.” According to Mbalula, more than 1,500 individuals were considered through various nomination streams. The finalized shortlist features 123 candidates, 54% of whom are women, bringing diverse professional backgrounds ranging from law and nursing to technical and community work.
Mbalula noted that the shortlist was drawn from a longer list of 532 names, filtered strictly against the movement’s own standards. “The branches and the communities were not spectators,” Mbalula stated, underscoring the grassroots involvement in the selection process.
The ANC has outlined seven minimum commitments that its mayoral candidates must pledge to deliver, directly addressing the systemic challenges facing local governments. These commitments include:
1. Ensuring reliable water and working sanitation.
2. Keeping the lights on.
3. Maintaining honest billing and a funded budget.
4. Achieving a clean audit and an end to wasteful spending.
5. Ensuring regular refuse collection.
6. Filling potholes and restoring the public realm.
7. Providing affordable public transport, local jobs, safety, and responsiveness, ensuring a municipality that answers when its people call.
The party made it clear that it is not shying away from the current realities of local governance. Mbalula acknowledged that some municipalities are currently unable to pay their bills or maintain infrastructure, while others suffer from leadership instability, poor management, corruption, and wastage. The new selection process was explicitly designed to confront these failures by rigorously testing candidates on their understanding of service delivery, municipal finances, and turnaround strategies.
This scrutiny will be heavily focused on some of the country’s biggest metropolitan areas, including the City of Johannesburg and other key metros, where residents will be closely evaluating whether the ANC’s choices can rebuild public confidence. All nominees will participate in a collective campaign effort, which Mbalula clarified will be led by a group rather than a single individual.
However, the selection process is only the first hurdle. Ramaposa emphasized that the party intends to hold its mayors strictly accountable to measurable targets once they assume office.
“Those who will finally be identified as our mayors will be on that radar screen,” Ramaposa stated. “Their actions, their activities, and their programs will be on that radar screen, and we will know exactly what is happening in each municipality and be able to measure them against those measurements and indicators that we will have set.”
Ultimately, the ANC asserts that it has moved beyond choosing candidates based on political entitlement, focusing instead on proven capability. Yet, the party recognizes that the final test lies at the ballot box. It will be the voters who make the ultimate choice in the 2026 local government elections, deciding whether to grant the ANC another mandate to run their municipalities based on the tangible realities they see in their communities.
The final mayoral candidates are scheduled to be officially announced in September, ahead of the formal election campaign trail.