The party had missed the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) deadline to submit the names of all candidates for the local government elections.

This has had an impact on the party in 93 municipalities.

Various political parties were opposed to the ANC’s application, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) threatening legal action.

Speaking to SABC News on Tuesday evening, the party’s Dakota Legoete said it was necessary to withdraw the application.

“We withdrew the case because as the ANC we felt that this will be a duplication of efforts, as the ANC together with the IEC we have made an application to the Constitutional Court to get the elections to be postponed.

“This particular application we felt that it is not necessary to pursue it, rather let's be in our hopes on the application that is already at the ConCourt, because it will assist as the ANC to ensure that what we wanted to pursue at the Electoral Court we can do at the ConCourt. It will also assist us as the ANC to save little resources we have."

Legoete says the withdrawal was not due to financial reasons.

“We do have a problem with finances but we are not necessarily broke and out of the game, it is only that we are trying our best to pull all the stops that’s why we even launched crowdfunding.

“We need to ensure that as the governing body we need to ensure that we stabilise the country.”