With the IEC deadline for party candidates lists having expired on Thursday, the race is on for victory at the August 3 local government elections, and while the DA and FF+ candidate lists have been finalized and released, the ANC is yet to publicly reveal its candidates for council.

ANC Regional Chairman, Mr Speedy Mashilo, confirmed on Monday that the ANC submitted its candidates lists before the IEC deadline expired.

He said that the party would officially release the lists for the region on Tuesday.

The lists were submitted electronically, and according to the municipal IEC office, it needed to be verified by the IEC’s Mpumalanga head office, before it could be publicized.

“We need to check that all the paperwork is in order, and disqualify whomever failed to submit the mandatory documents, before releasing the lists publicly,” Steve Tshwete IEC election officer, Mr Elvis Ngcobo told the Observer on Monday.

Apart from checking the paper work, the IEC also experienced a technical glitch on Monday, which resulted in the local office being unable to release preliminary ANC lists for publication.

Meanwhile, high ranking ANC politicians like Rehana Pilodia, is awaiting the release of the party’s lists with baited breath.

Ms Pilodia, who serves on Mayor Mike Masina’s Mayoral Committee, confirmed on Monday that she had no idea where her name is on the list. “If you get it, please share it with me,” she urged the Observer.

Recently, the ANC had to deal with a public backlash from Tokologo residents, accusing the party of manipulating the candidates nomination and election process.

The unhappiness led to the petrol bombing of at least two Sprinter buses in Mhluzi.

On Monday Mr Buks Olivier spoke openly for the first time about the accusations leading to his candidacy being stymied.

“I’ve been accused of using the K-word and therefor the DA’s Cape Town minders, decided it’d be best to remove me as candidate for Kanonkop,” Mr Olivier told the Middelburg Observer on Monday.

“In my 30 years working for the municipality, I’ve never been accused of such garbage, I pride myself on honesty and Christian values, and can categorically say that I never uttered the word,” Mr Olivier said with disappointment.

“I asked for proof, but there is none,” he says, adding that further excuses by the DA, like the party being told that it would lose votes when running with Olivier, “is also nonsense”.

“I’ve been a resident of Kanonkop for 20 years, enough said,” Mr Olivier concluded.

According to the DA, not a single candidate for Kanonkop could appease the party, and therefor outsider De Klerk was nominated.

Though she does not live in Kanonkop, her business acumen as guest house and car wash owner, led to her nomination.

The K-word also led to a public lashing of former provincial DA leader, Mr Anthony Benadie, who has abandoned all political aspirations for now.

As owner of the Dros Restaurant, Benadie was vilified by a popular Sunday paper, following an alleged racial incident there in May.

Benadie’s former personal assistant, accused him of being racially biased, after she was heckled in the restaurant by a table of white patrons.

Ms Elnah Sekwane, who visited Dros with her boyfriend, allege that while she was busy taking selfies, she could hear the white patrons saying “die k***** vat selfies van haarself, die f***** BEE goed”.

After a social media uproar, Benadie subsequently threatened with legal action, which prompted Ms Sekwame to believe that he was siding with the transgressors.

The story died a quick death, but not quick enough to sway the DA’s candidate nomination and selection process.