Overview
- The Constitutional Court ruled in the ANC’s favour on Thursday, October 15, ordering the Electoral Commission of South Africa to include 181 previously excluded ANC candidates on ballots for the 4 November local elections.
- Shortly after an emotional media briefing at Constitution Hill on the same day, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula collapsed from what the party described as emotional exhaustion and was helped from the courtroom.
- President Cyril Ramaphosa said he ordered Mbalula to rest and would not allow him back to work until both doctors and the president were satisfied with his recovery.
- Mbalula returned to Luthuli House on Sunday after medical checks, said he was ‘fit as a fiddle’, and immediately refocused on running the ANC’s final campaign operations and fixing administrative errors.
- The episode exposed and intensified internal ANC factional tensions, created urgent logistical work to update ballots in six municipalities, and could affect Mbalula’s standing ahead of the party’s national elective conference next year.