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DA bid to remove De Lille ‘unreasonable’ – Mpofu

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Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille Picture: Adrian de Kock
Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille Picture: Adrian de Kock

The Democratic Alliance’s efforts to remove Patricia De Lille from the party are “unreasonable”, Advocate Dali Mpofu has said.

Mpofu, who is currently representing De Lille as her legal defense, was speaking at the Western Cape High Court on Monday morning as he referred to the De Lille clause or “Recall clause”, which was instituted by the DA when it tried to oust the Cape Town mayor from the party.

At the centre of the DA’s argument is a radio interview which De Lille had conducted with 702 and Cape Talk radio host Eusebius McKaiser on April 26, in which she told him she would resign if her name was cleared.

The clause was instituted as one of the measures that the party took to revoke De Lille’s party membership, with Mpofu arguing against its constitutionality.

“The conduct, in particular of the DA, was wholly premised on bad faith, mala fides, was unreasonable and it offends some of the broad brush values that should characterise our constitutional dispensation,” Mpofu told the court.

Presiding over the case were Judges Babalwa Mantame, Andre Le Grange and Mark Sher.

Mpofu also argued that the reason the DA was struggling to remove de Lille was because she was a part of the council.

“The DA knows they can’t remove her through council because she enjoys a (small) majority in council. The fact that they want her gone is irrelevant,” he said.

De Lille was appearing in the second bid of her application for the court to review the decision by the DA to have her membership revoked.

Her case, which was meant to be heard on May 25, was postponed to Monday.

During his opening arguments, Mpofu argued against the party’s loss in confidence in De Lille.

“It doesn’t matter if I as a citizen lose confidence in her. The body that elected her as mayor, the council, must remove her as mayor,” he argued, saying that only the council which she was a part of had the power to remove her.

De Lille has served as the mayor since 2011, when she was voted in by the DA executive council, but reports over the last few months have revealed how party members have criticised the manner in which she has been running the province.

Last Thursday, during a vote that was taken by the Cape Town City Council, De Lille was stripped of her executive powers, a decision which she said she was also planning to take on review.

In September 2017 it emerged that De Lille had allegedly benefitted from “irregular” security upgrades at her home, a claim which she vehemently denied. De Lille had ordered the closure of the special investigations unit, which caused much uproar within the party.

Jean Pierre-Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security for Cape Town, who made the claims against De Lille, was against the closure.

They were both placed on “special leave” after a fall-out.

Read: De Lille and Smith placed on “special leave” after fall out

In January 2018, whilst De Lille was in the middle of a disciplinary hearing, she was charged with misconduct and bringing the party into disrepute by the DA. This followed allegations of “maladministration”.

Read: Editorial: The DA’s hunt for De Lille

In February 2018, it was alleged that De Lille had tried to solicit a bribe of R5 million from businessman Anthony Faul, for securing a contract to install fire extinguishers in Cape Town’s informal settlements, which dated back to 2012.

A case of bribery and corruption was laid against her by the DA at the Cape Town Police station after Fault had approached the party.

De Lille took to Twitter to deny the allegations.

“I deny and reject the reported allegations with the contempt it deserves,” De Lille said.

Read: De Lille warns DA over ‘malicious laying of criminal charges’

In May, the party announced that it had rescinded her membership, which left her deputy Ian Neilson as acting mayor with immediate effect.

Read: ‘Confusion’ over, as DA gives De Lille the boot

On Monday, Judge Sher read out an excerpt from the interview with McKaiser, where Mpofu argued that during the interview De Lille was in fact talking about resigning as the Mayor of Cape Town, and not as a member of the DA.

Sher sought clarity on whether McKaiser was in fact referring to De Lille resigning from the DA.

Le Grange questioned De Lille’s reasoning as to why she would resign if her name had been cleared.

“Why would you want to resign as mayor if your name has been cleared?” Le Grange asked.

“My lordship I don’t know, she has not been charged with stupidity,” Mpofu replied.

Arguments by the DA are expected to be heard on Tuesday.

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