The announcement
The African National Congress on Saturday formally unveiled its mayoral candidates for the 2026 local government elections, presenting its candidate lists municipality by municipality at a national announcement event at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
The People’s Register followed the official livestream. Opening the announcement, President Cyril Ramaphosa described the selection process as “the most thorough process undertaken by all political parties”.
For Nelson Mandela Bay, the metropolitan municipality at the centre of this publication’s reporting, four names were placed before the public: Andile Lungisa (residing NEC member), Babalwa Lobishe (ANC Regional Chairperson and Executive Mayor), Nontombi Nama (ANC Deputy Regional Secretary) and Xolani Vela (Business Community).
The names are presented here as they were put before the country: an announcement made in public, on the record, and captured live from the official announcement stream by this desk.
Four names before the Bay
The announcement closes the period in which the region’s mayoral selection was largely an internal matter and the subject of political speculation. The four candidates now carry the ANC’s case into the metropolitan contest, and each brings a different political experience and constituency into the public conversation.
Babalwa Lobishe is the incumbent Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, as this publication has reported in other occasions. Beyond the mayor, the slate pairs established and newer figures from across the region’s structures.
The list will now be tested where it matters: in wards, in communities and in the daily argument of a municipal campaign.
Why this metro matters
Nelson Mandela Bay is one of the most politically contested metropolitan municipalities in the country. Its politics have been defined by close contests and coalition arrangements for years, and every election here is a national story told at street level.
The municipality carries a metropolitan economy with industrial, automotive, logistics, tourism and coastal assets. Residents, however, measure local government closer to home: reliable services, functioning infrastructure, safe communities, municipal finances in order, and local economic opportunity that reaches the people who need it most.
That is the ground on which the 2026 contest will be fought in the Bay, and it is the ground on which the candidates announced on Saturday will be judged.
From names to programme
Saturday’s announcement is the first of two campaign milestones in one weekend. The ANC will launch its Local Government Elections Manifesto at Riverside in Diepsloot on Sunday, 23 August, as this publication reported when the programme was set out.
The party has framed 2026 as “The Year of Decisive Action to Fix Local Government and Transform the Economy”. A candidate list answers the question of who will carry the flag. Sunday’s manifesto must answer the harder question: what that leadership intends to do.
The contest reaches the wards
An announcement made in Sandton becomes real in the Bay’s streets, wards, townships, suburbs, workplaces and informal settlements, where the consequences of municipal decisions are felt every day.
The campaign will also be shaped by a generation of young people whose expectations of local government run beyond traditional service delivery: access to work, enterprise, skills, technology, sport, culture and a genuine share in the economy of their city.
A municipality with the Bay’s industrial base, ports, coastline and human capital holds real economic potential. The political question the campaign must answer is how that potential becomes visible opportunity in people’s lives.
From announcement to accountability
Candidate announcements mark a shift in political responsibility. Inside a nomination process, candidates compete for organisational support. Once announced publicly, they answer to a far wider constituency: the electorate.
That electorate includes ANC supporters, undecided voters, young people voting for the first time, organised workers, business owners, professionals and community organisations. The party’s case will rest not on the stature of names but on the credibility, clarity and practical character of its programme.
What happens next
The manifesto launch takes place on Sunday. From there the campaign moves into communities, and the four names announced on Saturday will become increasingly familiar to the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay.
The People’s Register will follow the candidates, the manifesto commitments and the contest in the Bay through election day, separating what is promised from what is delivered, as always.
Context and further reading
This report is based on the ANC’s official announcement livestream, watched and recorded by this desk on 22 August 2026, and on this publication’s earlier reporting of the announcement programme.
The People’s Register Political Desk
Images: captured live from the ANC’s official announcement stream, 22 August 2026. Hero, slate presentation and card artwork: The People’s Register.
Next: the 2026 manifesto launch
The ANC launches its Local Government Elections Manifesto at Riverside in Diepsloot on Sunday, 23 August. The People’s Register will report the commitments and what they mean for Nelson Mandela Bay.
2026 Manifesto Launch
Sunday, 23 August · Riverside, Diepsloot.
Read the election programme →