The African National Congress (ANC) is requiring councillor candidates who do not have matric to obtain one within 12 months of taking office.

The directive was issued by the ANC electoral committee in response to requests for waivers for candidates without matric qualifications who were being considered as candidate councillors.

The committee is chaired by former president Kgalema Motlanthe.

According to a letter from the electoral committee to the ANC secretary-general and to a provincial leadership committee (it is not known which one), the committee rejected requests for waivers after assessing the motivations and supporting documents submitted by the province.

The letter said while nine candidates qualified for a waiver under the relevant rules and guidelines, the province’s application did not show why the candidates were exceptional compared with other possible candidates.

The electoral committee said it therefore had “no option but to reject all your recommendations for waivers due to unsatisfactory reasons and motivations without merit”.

However, apparently because the deadline for registering candidates with the Electoral Commission was fast approaching, the committee conceded a conditional grace period to candidates who did not have matric qualifications.

Under the directive, candidates granted the grace period must undertake to obtain a matric qualification or an accredited equivalent qualification or higher within 12 months of becoming ANC councillors.

They must also submit a written and signed pledge to the electoral committee through the provincial leadership committee.

“Candidates who do not submit the written and signed pledge [by] 17:00 on August 25 must be immediately removed and replaced on the candidate list,” the committee added.

Formally, there are no educational requirements for councillors or other public representatives.

There have, however, been concerns that a lack of education lowers representatives’ capacity to exercise their responsibilities, for example in understanding and applying legislation. There is also an element of prestige in fielding well-educated candidates, and potentially of inspiration to the public in doing so.

There may exist an additional risk that political office provides people without education or qualifications with an otherwise inaccessible career and standard of living. Intra- and interparty politics can thus become an existential matter for individuals, which can be damaging to the functioning of representative institutions and democratic accountability.

Some bodies, such as the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, have called for minimum competency standards for councillors.

Statistics South Africa found last year that 47.1% of South Africans aged 20 years and older did not have a matric qualification, and 8.7% were functionally illiterate.