The African National Congress's (ANC's) special national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Friday is expected to deal with who should be blamed for the party's failure to submit its candidates in at least 93 out of 278 municipalities - 35 of which will result in a change of government or opposition without a single vote being cast. 

News24 understands that at the top of the agenda is investigating, identifying and taking action on all those responsible for the failure to do so in such a multitude of municipalities. 

The meeting, ahead of the party's lekgotla, is expected to delve into the further embarrassment caused by the ANC's submission of a voluminous application to the Electoral Court to challenge the Electoral Commission of SA's (IEC) decision not to extend the candidate registration deadline, which it abruptly withdrew on Tuesday evening.

ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe says the meeting will start at 14:00.

"It will discuss the IEC list process and will get a report [on the matter] from the national working committee."

According to NEC insiders, priority is being placed on taking action against those at the heart of the failure to submit candidates because if the elections proceed as planned, it means the ANC is likely to take a severe electoral knock due.

They say that, apart from claims that the IEC candidate registration system failed, "the ANC messed up." 

In the court papers that where later withdrawn, deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte says that "in 13 municipalities, the ANC will be out of government without contesting and offering the voters the choice to vote for us, because we will not be in on the PR (proportional representation) ballot because our candidates' names were not submitted in time."  

She says that in a further six municipalities, due to the late registration of PR candidates and "the subsequent disqualification that will follow, of all but two ward candidates per affected municipality, the ANC will lose its status as the main opposition party without a single vote being cast."

In addition, in nine municipalities the party will lose its status as the governing party, without a vote being cast, due to insufficient ward candidates being entered on time. It will also lose its status as the main opposition party in seven municipalities for the same reason.

The most affected provinces are: Limpopo, for which the ANC failed to submit candidates in at least 15 municipalities; KwaZulu-Natal, for which the party failed to submit candidates in at least nine municipalities; and Mpumalanga, for which the ANC failed to submit candidates in at least nine municipalities. 

In Limpopo, the ANC failed to submit candidates in party strongholds such as Greater Giyani, Collins Chabane and the Greater Tzaneen regions. 

Names of ward candidates for most municipalities in the Zululand District were not submitted. These names include the party's PR lists in the same areas. 

Other affected municipalities in the province include uPhongolo, Nongoma, KwaDukuza and Nquthu. 

In Mpumalanga, Steve Tshwete, the City of Mbombela, Govan Mbeki and Emalahleni are among the nine affected municipalities that are affected.

In the Free State, the embattled Maluti-a-Phofung, Matjhabeng and Dihlabeng are among the seven affected municipalities. 

In Gauteng, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Midvaal, Merafong City and Johannesburg are the five municipalities affected, putting the closely contested province in jeopardy of being wrestled from the ANC by a coalition of opposition parties. 

Further compounding the already dire situation for the ANC, the IEC has also indicated that while the deadline for registering candidates was supposed to be 21:00 the system only closed at 21:34 with 74 candidates being registered after the cut-off time - the majority of which is understood to be ANC members.