MEDIA RELEASE 

2026-10-15

SUMMARY: The Labour Party of South Africa (Labour Party) calls on the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to apply one standard to every party as it prepares to rule today in the ANC–IEC candidate-submission dispute. The Party points out how its own ConCourt case of 2024, after OCNS glitches prevented final submission, robbed it of the opportunity to contest nationally and in four provinces, despite signatures and office-bearer details having been uploaded.

The Labour Party is following today’s highly anticipated ConCourt judgment in African National Congress v Electoral Commission of South Africa with keen interest. The ANC is asking the Court to overturn the Electoral Court’s decision concerning 181 candidates whose nominations for six municipalities were not finalised on the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) Online Candidate Nomination System (OCNS) by the deadline. 

“The law must apply equally to every political party, regardless of its size or political influence. In 2024, glitches in the IEC’s online nomination system prevented the Labour Party from completing its submission and participating in the 2024 National and Provincial Elections. Although signatures and office-bearer details had been uploaded for four provinces, we were shut out of contesting nationally and in those provinces. That was not a mere technical inconvenience; it denied the Party and its supporters a place in the electoral contest”, said Joseph Mathunjwa, interim President of the Labour Party. 

The Labour Party calls on the Court to apply a consistent standard to the ANC’s case, with any distinction between the two cases grounded in the law and the evidence. 

“The ANC must be judged by the same standard as the Labour Party. South Africa cannot have one electoral standard for working-class driven and ‘smaller parties’ as they called us, and another for the ruling elite. Equality before the law must mean equality in practice”, Mathunjwa said. 

The Labour Party will contest 45 municipalities across all nine provinces in the local government elections on 4 November 2026. Its campaign is guided by the LGE Manifesto and its Seven Pledges: restore reliable basic services; secure fair land and housing; rebuild public infrastructure; create decent local work; make communities safer; open opportunity to everyone; and govern honestly and spend wisely. All of this is to bring dignity to ourselves, as communities. 

“We remain focused on taking honest, competent and working-class centred representation to municipal councils. We will continue to demand fairness from every institution responsible for administering and adjudicating electoral disputes”, Mathunjwa concluded. 

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