ANC CLEANS OUT ITS CLOSET: MBALULA ORDERS REGIONAL SECRETARIES TO QUIT MUNICIPAL JOBS OR FACE THE DOOR

The ANC is cleaning out its closet. No stone left unturned. 

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula chairs a meeting at Luthuli House, Johannesburg, this week. Mbalula recently directed regional secretaries to resign from municipal positions within 30 days, saying the role must be held full-time.

By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief  

The Azanian | Truth. Fearless. Unfiltered.  

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JOHANNESBURG —ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has ordered all regional secretaries and regional executive committee members who hold municipal positions to choose between their party posts and municipal employment within 30 days.

A directive signed by Mbalula on 29 May 2026 was issued to ANC regions this week. It states that regional secretary and REC positions must be held on a full-time basis and cannot be held concurrently with municipal employment, council seats, or senior management roles in municipalities.

“The movement cannot strengthen its structures if the regional secretary is not the regional structure’s full-time political and organisational anchor, and the movement cannot lead the renewal of municipal government if its own elected office-bearers at the regional level are themselves embedded as senior management within municipalities,” Mbalula said in the directive.

Regional secretaries must convene their committees this week and obtain written declarations from every member on municipal employment. Reports must be submitted to the secretary-general’s office within 30 days.

The ANC’s national working committee will receive a consolidated audit within 45 days. The audit will cover municipalities within 100km of each region to prevent office-bearers from holding prohibited posts in neighbouring areas.

The directive cites the Constitutional Court’s April 2025 ruling in Samwu vs the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Municipal Systems Act, which bars municipal managers and officials accountable to them from holding political party office.

“Where the regional secretary holds employment elsewhere, the regional secretary is required, within those 30 days, either to resign from that employment or to resign as regional secretary,” the directive reads.

Mbalula also said: “The movement does not stand by while its own structures weaken. The movement does not stand by while the law is honoured in the breach by its own elected office-bearers.”

The order comes ahead of South Africa’s local government elections on Wednesday 4 November 2026. Regional secretaries are responsible for branch operations, campaigns and candidate coordination across municipalities and wards.

The ANC has not released the number of officials affected. Regional executive committees must monitor compliance and report back before the deadline.