The nomination clock stopped at 17:00 on 28 August. That is the only point both sides accept without argument.
Everything after that is a fight about what the IEC’s candidate-capture system actually held when the door closed.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking on a Tembisa walkabout, said the party is testing routes: go back to the IEC, use the Political Liaison Committee, or go to the Electoral Court. He framed it as a technical dispute over names the party says were already loaded, not a request to add new people after time.
The commission’s public line is colder. Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo has said there is no avenue to reopen submissions, electronic or manual. “That is history.” Parties that *did* lodge on time may still be asked for extra documents — that window runs to 7 September. Dual-candidacy notices are due by 9 September. The final candidate list is scheduled for 16 September. The election is 4 November.
Pack reporting puts about 181 ANC ward and PR names at risk in KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the Eastern Cape. That figure is the ANC’s. It has not been independently audited in public. The IEC has separately said 2 274 prospective candidates from 45 parties nationwide were captured on the online system and never finally submitted. The ANC is one of those parties. MK has already warned the commission against treating the governing party as a special case.
This is not a glitch colour piece. Local lists decide who sits on councils that already struggle to keep water in the pipes and rates on the books. If the names are off the certified list, they are off the ballot on 4 November unless a court says the stored data counts as a timeous nomination.
Do not invent a case number. None has been published. Do not invent an IEC server log that proves or disproves the party’s claim. Both remain outside the public record this afternoon.
A closed statutory deadline is being asked to recognise an incomplete confirmation step. The IEC says the law does not give it a condonation power to reopen. The ANC says the data is already inside the commission’s own system and should count. Until a court or a written IEC notice says otherwise, captured-but-not-submitted is not a candidate.
If you live in an affected ward in KZN, the Free State or the Eastern Cape, the name on an ANC sticker in October may not be the name that was meant to appear on the ballot. Coalition maths in hung municipalities moves if those names fall off. Opposition parties gain seats they did not win at the door; voters lose a choice they thought they had.
* Will the ANC file by the time the 7 September document window closes?
* Will the Electoral Court treat this as recognition of a received file or as a late nomination in disguise?
* If the IEC is right that the fault sat on the party’s side, why was that not fixed before 17:00 on 28 August?