News24 | ANC to name metro mayor picks before voters head to polls – a major break with tradition

ANC electoral committee chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe briefed the media on Monday.

• The ANC will shift its mayoral candidate announcement strategy, revealing candidates for major municipalities before the 2026 local elections.
• National officials will now select mayoral picks for metros and secondary cities, replacing previous regional-led processes.
• Candidates must meet specific qualifications, including a tertiary education and three years of experience in public service.

The ANC will announce its mayoral candidates for metropolitan municipalities and major municipalities before the local government elections in 2026.

This marks a significant departure from the ANC’s traditional candidate announcement processes, as the party previously campaigned on the party’s brand and only announced candidates after the elections.

ANC electoral committee chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe confirmed the new strategy at a press briefing on Monday.

This means the ANC’s top brass will now deliberate and choose the party’s mayoral candidates for the City of Johannesburg, Mangaung, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay, and the City of Cape Town.

Motlanthe said the ANC’s national bosses will also be charged with selecting mayors for the metros and secondary cities. Previously, this had been the sole responsibility of the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC), with recommendations from the regional executive committee (REC), which almost always automatically picked the REC chairperson for the position of mayor.

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News24 previously reported that the ANC was considering making deviations in its candidate selection process, mainly to compete with the candidates already announced by other parties – one of which was DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille, who is running for Johannesburg mayor.

Motlanthe, however, sidestepped questions around why the ANC had made the deviation.

“The position on the metros and secondary cities is now going to be handled by the national officials because the normal practice is that, almost automatically, the regional chairperson becomes district mayor,” he said.

Motlanthe added:

“The executive mayors of all metropolitan municipalities and secondary cities [will] be appointed exclusively by the national officials – taking into consideration the issue of gender representation at all levels.”

Motlanthe also outlined the new rules and guidelines for selecting candidates for the upcoming elections: “All candidates to be considered for the positions of mayors, speakers, and chief whips must possess the following qualifications and experience: [a] tertiary qualification from an accredited institution and at least three years’ experience – either as an MP, a peer, or a councillor.”

Meanwhile, the REC will recommend three candidates for all local district mayoral positions per municipality to provincial officials from among the nominated councillor candidates.