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Patricia de Lille has brought an end to her drawn-out battle with the DA, resigning and labelling it as a “rudderless party” with no leader.
The now former mayor announced from the steps of the high court in Cape Town this afternoon that she will be vacating her office effective this evening at 7pm. De Lille was joined by former councillors of the party who include former chief whip Shaun August, all of whom resigned from their positions and the party last week in support of De Lille. Two more councillors also announced that they too were abandoning ship.
De Lille had told City Press over the weekend that party leader Mmusi Maimane was being set up to fail by senior leaders in the DA. Today she appealed to him to lean in and take charge.
READ: De Lille wants Maimane to take charge and speak for himself
“I just wish I can really know who the pastor is. I have respect for him, I will not stoop down to that level that they have stooped to in the party and he allowed that to happen under his watch. My advice to him is please take control of the DA because you are allowing people with their own agendas to be destructive,” the former mayor said to loud cheers from her supporters.
“I am also resigning as a member of the DA. I can no longer stay in this abusive relationship, when people abuse you, you must walk away. Where you have to work with people who are throwing work at you on a daily basis, you walk away.”
The party and the former mayor have been embroiled in a bitter battle for more than a year now with the party accusing De Lille of mismanagement in the City of Cape Town. Last week the metro’s council adopted a report which recommends that she be charged criminally for interfering with the duties of the city manager amongst other claims. De Lille said that she had filed papers calling on the courts to provide her relief by way of setting aside the report. She said that the city had paid in excess of R5 million to Bowman’s who authored the report and said that she believes there has been political collusion with the law firm and the DA.
Yesterday the DA and council announced that criminal charges have been laid against De Lille.
The former mayor also thanked premier and former party leader Helen Zille for supporting her fight against the party as well as being instrumental in brokering the deal reached with Maimane for her to resign.
“I met with premier Helen Zille on Monday. We discussed a lot of things. I have known Helen for many years. She has been involved in the struggle against apartheid since the formation of the United Democratic Front and that is where I met her. Helen and myself are the only two people in this party with struggle credentials. The one thing that Helen has always been clear on when she was the leader of this party, she always said that the DA is a party of systems and due process.
“Helen assisted me at one stage when I wasn’t talking to the DA, she was my intermediary and I want to thank her for that. She stood by me and she warned them that they did not follow due process. I will continue to respect Helen Zille; she has also just been through a bad episode with the DA. The two of us are always talking and supporting each other.”
On what she will do next, De Lille said she would make her plans known in the next two weeks adding that she is also working on writing a book.
“I will take two weeks leave to consult with my family and I will make an announcement as to what I am going to do with the next phase of my life. I am prepared to serve my country in any capacity. This certainly is a bend in the road of my career but it is not the end of my career.
“Those idiots that have continued to smear my name in public ... I will clear my name in public. I will make sure that I invest whatever little money that I have to ensure that I clear my name.”
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