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Senior DA leaders are convinced that former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille is hatching a plan to revive the Independent Democrats (ID), a party she formed in 2003.
The DA leaders say this is an attempt to greatly reduce the DA’s votes in the Western Cape in next year’s general election.
A search by City Press on the Independent Electoral Commission website showed that the ID is a registered party.
The DA and the ID merged to challenge the ANC in the 2014 general elections.
Western Cape DA leader Bonginkosi Madikizela confirmed to City Press that the party was aware of plans to revive the ID.
“Voters in South Africa have rejected racial nationalist parties. Patricia de Lille’s praise singers keep on peddling this lie that the DA will lose coloured voters and possibly the Western Cape,” Madikizela said.
A DA leader who declined to be named said: “We are aware that they plan to revive the ID. The ID was never deregistered. They are now saying that DA is a racist party. Why have they been quiet all along? We are not going to protect wrongdoing and corruption because we want votes.”
Greg Barnardo, one of the DA councillors in Cape Town who resigned in support of De Lille, hinted that there was a plan to form an entirely new movement and not to revive the ID.
“We are holding numerous consultations with communities in terms of what they want us to do. Those DA leaders are a bunch of liars and are deceiving people. They are afraid of a new movement,” Barnardo said.
Madikizela said it was utter nonsense that the DA’s successes in Cape Town and the Western Cape were because of De Lille’s leadership.
“It’s the DA that resurrected Patricia de Lille, not the other way around. Patricia de Lille formed her party by crossing the floor from the Pan Africanist Congress with fanfare and excitement. She contested her first elections in 2004 and got 1.65% of the votes, which translated to seven seats in Parliament. In the Western Cape, her party received 7.8% and received two seats,” Madikizela said.
Madikizela said De Lille vowed never to work with the ANC after receiving a tip-off exposing the ANC’s involvement in the corrupt arms deal.
“But, in 2006, she decided to support the ANC with the hope of forming a coalition with them, but they lost by one vote. After that, her party started to unravel and it was a downward spiral. Any sober-minded person will see that the DA is a brand with or without Patricia.”
However, Madikizela said he was not suggesting that De Lille’s departure would not affect the DA.
“It would be disingenuous and naive of me to suggest that – but it will not collapse the DA, as many doomsayers are suggesting.”
De Lille has remained cagey about the subject of joining a new party, saying all options are on the table.
Last week, the DA was thrown into disarray after councillors, including the party’s chief whip Shaun August, resigned in support of De Lille.
They cited racism and victimisation as their reasons for leaving the party.
De Lille, one of the country’s longest-serving executive mayors, resigned as Cape Town mayor and DA member earlier this week.
A day before her resignation, Cape Town speaker Dirk Smit announced that the city council had laid criminal charges against her following a report by Bowman Gilfillan, which accused the De Lille administration of financial irregularities.
