The EFF has lost its bid to block the City of Ekurhuleni’s budget vote.

• The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg found the EFF failed to establish urgency and ordered it to pay costs.
• Ekurhuleni Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza said the budget was not a political trophy but a vital service delivery instrument.
• The EFF and ANC governed Ekurhuleni jointly after 2021, but their coalition collapsed in 2024.

The EFF suffered a stinging court defeat on Thursday after the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg struck its urgent application from the roll, clearing the way for the City of Ekurhuleni to proceed with its 2026/27 budget vote.

The court found that the EFF had failed to establish urgency and that the party had alternative remedies available under the council’s standing orders.

It also dismissed the EFF’s attempt to introduce further evidence.

In another blow to the party, costs were awarded against it, including the costs of two counsel.

The EFF wanted the court to prevent the speaker from calling out councillors’ names, whether they were for or against the budget.

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The party argued that such a mechanism, in which a presiding officer gauges support by the volume of “ayes” and “noes”, was unconstitutional and violated Section 30(2) of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 and Section 160(3)(b) of the Constitution, both of which require a verifiable, individual count of councillors’ votes.

Ekurhuleni Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza welcomed the judgment and called on all political parties to allow the budget process to proceed without further obstruction.

“This ruling allows the city to continue with the important work of considering and adopting a budget that responds to the needs of residents,” Xhakaza said.

He added:

The ANC, which governs Ekurhuleni, has consistently backed the budget, saying it would strengthen service delivery for millions of residents in the metro.

The party framed the EFF’s legal challenges as attempts to use the courts to wage political battles that should be settled in council chambers.

The case is the sharpest escalation yet in a political breakdown within Ekurhuleni that has been building for nearly two years.

The ANC and EFF jointly governed the metro after the 2021 local government elections, with the EFF securing key mayoral committee positions, including the finance portfolio.

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That partnership publicly fractured in mid-2024 when Xhakaza removed EFF councillor Nkululeko Dunga as the mayoral committee member for finance, replacing him with an ANC official.

The fallout had already disrupted council processes before Thursday’s ruling.

A February 2026 sitting collapsed before it could transact any business, leaving key financial decisions in limbo and drawing warnings from opposition parties that service delivery would suffer.

The EFF subsequently withdrew from the coalition entirely.

When the adjusted 2025/26 budget came before the council in March 2026, the EFF rejected it, citing what it called weak financial governance, unrealistic revenue projections, and poor administrative planning.

EFF leader Julius Malema had previously accused Xhakaza of acting in bad faith and attempting to marginalise the party in the metro.

The party filed its urgent High Court bid on 18 May 2026, listing nine respondents, including the speaker, the executive mayor, the municipal manager, the city, and provincial and national ministers of finance and cooperative governance.

An affidavit from EFF councillor Thembi Msane supported the application.

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However, the party’s legal troubles in Ekurhuleni are not over.

A separate constitutional review challenging the adoption of the 2025/26 adjustment budget by the speaker and the mayor on 10 March 2026 remains pending before the court.

The interdict application was framed as an interim measure, pending the outcome of that review.

With the urgent court bid dismissed, the city said it would now move to finalise its budget, one it stated was essential to honouring its constitutional obligations and protecting the financial stability of one of South Africa’s largest metros.