[11] In subsequent months the challenge coalesced into a nascent campaign with support concentrated in the Eastern Cape, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and the South African Communist Party's Young Communist League; Lungisa's backers, including Lehlogonolo Masoga and Buti Manamela, were associated with opposition to Malema's bid to have Fikile Mbalula replace Gwede Mantashe as ANC secretary-general.
[12][13] The split between Lungisa and Malema played out at the regional level in a series of highly contested provincial elective conferences in the ANCYL.
[16][17] Though much of the proceedings were closed to the press, Lungisa reportedly escaped the motion of no confidence by disowning the anti-Malema campaign and apologising.
[16][19] In January 2011, as the ANCYL elective conference approached, Lungisa withdrew from contention for the presidency, reportedly throwing his support behind Malema's other rival, Lebogang Maile.
[20] However, in May, Lungisa also disowned Maile's campaign and endorsed Malema's bid for re-election, commending his leadership and claiming that he had never intended to unseat him.
[22] Lungisa did not stand for re-election to a top leadership position, but he was elected as an ordinary member of the ANCYL's National Executive Committee.
[26][27] In October 2013, Lungisa and three others appeared before the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court over allegations of fraud and money-laundering relating to a R2.5 million paid by the Department of Arts and Culture for the 'Nelson Mandela Sports Day concert', popularly derided as the "kissing festival".
[34] However, along with many other candidates viewed as hostile to incumbent ANC president Jacob Zuma, he failed to gain election to the committee.
[48] When the provincial conference opened in October 2017, a plenary session devolved into violence in an incident later popularly known as the "festival of chairs".
[50][51] In April 2018, Lungisa was found guilty of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm for hitting DA councillor Rano Kayser over the head with a glass water jug during a heated council meeting in October 2016.
[52] He said he acted in self-defense but Judge Morne Cannon of the Port Elizabeth Magistrates Court, said Lungisa changed his versions throughout the trial and his evidence could not be trusted.
[56] On 17 September 2020, after the appeal failed,[57][58] he returned to North End Prison in Port Elizabeth to serve the rest of his sentence.
[59] The following week, he was granted renewed bail in the amount of R10,000 pending a bid for leave to appeal in the Constitutional Court,[60] but he elected to remain in prison.
[61] Through much of this saga, Lungisa resisted a series of instructions from the ANC to step aside from his positions in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
[62][63] He ultimately resigned from his MMC position in August 2020,[64][65] but he reportedly remained an ordinary councillor when he entered prison the following month.
[73] In the months after his release, Lungisa was subject to disciplinary proceedings inside the Eastern Cape ANC for contravening party rules of conduct in connection with his criminal conviction.
[76] However, Mabuyane and his allies won in all the top leadership positions; Lungisa lost the treasury to Zolile Williams, who received 799 votes to his 673.