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ANC: De Lille’s ‘unconstitutional’ axing has plunged Cape Town into crisis

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Patricia de Lille. Picture: Adrian de Kock
Patricia de Lille. Picture: Adrian de Kock

The ANC in the Western Cape has weighed in on the DA’s decision to revoke Patricia De Lille’s membership, calling the action unconstitutional and demanded an immediate investigation into the matter.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, the party accused the DA of using “unconstitutional means” to oust Patricia De Lille as mayor – a move they argued “has plunged one of the country’s biggest metros into crisis.”

“Good governance and constitutional order is being undermined by the DA. The ANC views the De Lille clause as a violation of both the city council’s independence and the executive mandated of elected officials as elected by the city of Cape Town,” said ANC Western Cape provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs.

The “De Lille clause” being referenced by Jacobs is a subsection in the DA’s federal constitution stating that a member ceases to be a DA member when he/she publicly declared his/her intention of resigning from the party. It was used to oust De Lille from office by the DA on Tuesday.

Jacobs argued that De Lille and other councillors, although deployed by their party, were ultimately elected into office by the people of Cape Town rendering her axing and the dissolution of her mayoral committee “unconstitutional”.

“It is entirely disingenuous for the DA to claim that Patricia de Lille is responsible for the city’s wars. This washing of hands [sacrificing only De Lille] is a mind boggling failure [by the party] to take responsibility for decisions taken by the entire DA caucus.

READ: ‘I will design my own future’ – De Lille intensifies her fight with the DA

“The lengths to which the DA has gone to get rid of mayor Patricia de Lille has shown the party for what it really is, a racist, elitist party which aims to protect white privilege at the expense of African, coloured and Indian communities,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs said the DA pretended to have the interests of all its members at heart but was clearly using “blacks”, broadly using the term to include African, coloured and Indian, to entrench colonial and apartheid privilege.

Maimane under fire

Jacobs mentioned that DA leader Mmusi Maimane was under fire following remarks that he made on Freedom Day that “South Africans must confront white privilege and black poverty.”

Jacobs claimed that the DA’s “… collusion with foreign business interests on various lucrative contracts including the desalinisation contracts are some of the reasons why members like De Lille are being sacrificed by their party as it seeks to builds a financial fund to fight the ANC.”

According to both Jacobs and Ebrahim Rasool, head of the ANC elections campaign in the Western Cape, the ANC in the Western Cape “will continue to protect good governance hence they will support all legal court procedures to get to the bottom of the matter.”

This followed De Lille’s promise on Tuesday that she would be taking her fight with the Democratic Alliance to the next level and would seek leave to appeal the party’s decision to terminate her party membership on Friday.

“As the ANC we have asked all our councillors and other councillors to reject the De Lille clause from being rectified,” said Jacobs

Jacobs reiterated that the internal party politics within the DA have plunged the city into crisis. He gave the example of under spending within the city’s human settlement budget while the people of Cape Town suffer homelessness and crime which has led to communities finding themselves at each other’s throats a scenario that played out in Mitchells Plain and Isiqalo last week.


Juniour Khumalo
Journalist
City Press
p:+27 (0) 11 713 9001
w:www.citypress.co.za  e: juniour.khumalo@citypress.co.za
      
 
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