IEC final lists expose fierce metro battles ahead of local elections

The Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) final candidate lists for the November 4 local government elections expose deepening political fragmentation across South Africa’s eight metros, with incumbents, former mayors and new political players competing to shape who governs the country’s biggest cities.

Nowhere is that fragmentation more pronounced than Johannesburg, where the ANC’s candidate list has thrown the mayoral contest into sharper focus.

ANC regional chairperson and executive deputy mayor Loyiso Masuku tops the party’s proportional representation (PR) list, followed by Musiiwa Maxwell Nedzamba, Nomoya Daphney Mnisi, incumbent mayor Sello Enoch Morero and Sibongile Eunice Mgcina.

Masuku is one of three people the ANC shortlisted for the mayoralty, alongside Morero and Rev Frank Chikane. But Chikane, a veteran cleric and former director-general in the presidency under Thabo Mbeki, does not appear on the final PR list.