The African National Congress's (ANC's) extended national executive committee (NEC) meeting announced on Monday that all its mayoral candidates will now be elected through a nomination and screening process similar to that employed in the appointment of North West premier-elect Bushy Maape, and Joburg Mayor Jolidee Matongo.

ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said, "With regard to the selection of mayoral candidates, regional and provincial structures of the ANC will nominate three names, and these candidates will be interviewed and screened, before the ANC will announce all its mayoral candidates."

He said the vetting process will also consider "experience and skills, gender equity, youth participation and diversity".

"These ANC rules for candidate selection provide that candidates must be people who are capable; experienced and skilled to ensure that the delivery of basic services and governance of municipalities are strengthened and revolutionised; and representative of the diversity of South Africa's people in respect of gender, age, race, as well as disability and sexual orientation, amongst others," said Mabe.

This new process of prioritising postgraduate qualifications and having all candidates go through an interview process was first implemented by the ANC in electing a candidate to replace North West Premier Job Mokgoro, and in appointing Matongo as the party's candidate for mayor of Johannesburg.

This selection process was widely endorsed during the NEC meeting and those in attendance said it would greatly revamp the calibre of leaders in local government.

Delegates at the extended gathering, held over the weekend, met to approve the lists of ANC candidates for the local government elections currently scheduled to take place on 27 October.

Representatives of ANC provinces, leagues and alliance partners – the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu – participated in the meeting that took place ahead of the IEC deadline for the registration of candidates on Monday.

The meeting took place amid nationwide protests over the party's local government candidate selection processes.

The party in the Eastern Cape has already appointed an investigation committee that will investigate allegations and complaints from branches and individual members on the selection of local government candidates. This was confirmed by provincial spokesperson Loyiso Magqashela.

The move comes after the Amathole and Dr WB Rubusana regions complained that selection processes for these candidates were manipulated and guidelines flouted.

Various ANC members in the Moretele sub-region in Hammanskraal and neighbouring towns in North West took their grievances to the party's headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg, where they handed over a memorandum.

In the memorandum, the members accused the ANC's interim provincial committee (IPC) of having manipulated their candidate lists.

They requested that the "manipulated list of ward candidates by the [interim provincial committee] from Moretele be reversed, and that the list of ward candidates voted by our communities be considered".

There were also allegations that the process has been manipulated and abused by gatekeepers who imposed candidates they favoured.

The aggrieved members said members who were not elected at branch general meetings have been appointed to be candidates in wards, while some branch members said they failed to convene a planned councillors' nomination meeting because of divisions.

On Friday, angry Tshwane ANC members from Nellmapius marched to the regional party offices in Arcadia to demand a rerun of the candidate nomination process ahead of the upcoming municipal elections.

Aggrieved members from ward 86 complained that the process was marred by irregularities caused by people who allegedly imposed the names of their preferred candidates on the ballot papers.

Branches in North West's Bojanala region have also announced that they are considering legal action against the party in a bid to reverse the lists handed over to the ANC NEC at their meeting this weekend. In Mpumalanga, scores of ANC members marched to the Mbombela provincial headquarters to challenge the outcome of the list process.

Mabe said that "a number of members have highlighted their disputes at ANC offices, nationally and provincially".

He added that "the Electoral [Commission] of SA (IEC) dispute resolution structures will continue to consider any serious disputes within the prescribed time frames, even after the registration of ANC candidates on 23 August 2021. Where necessary, matters will be referred to the ANC disciplinary and other structures for action".

"Channels for managing disputes are an integral part of the ANC candidate selection processes. Members or structures can, where necessary, formally raise grievances with the process. Various structures have dealt with appeals and disputes throughout the process, often under tight deadlines imposed by Covid-19 restrictions."

Mabe also confirmed that the NEC ratified some candidate lists after "rigorous screening and interviews by the regional interview and vetting panels and the provincial list committees".

The ANC's candidate selection process resulted in the nomination of nearly 10 000 ward and proportional representative candidates.

It was feared that the party would not meet the Monday, 21:00 IEC deadline as a result of ANC workers protesting over salaries and the volatile situation caused by branches' concerns over the nomination process.