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Mayor says that the DA leader is being fed a script by vicious people in the party and that he must learn to speak for himself
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille believes that DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s “lack of control” of his party is at the centre of its troubles.
De Lille has also told City Press that she plans to go to the Western Cape High Court this week to take on review the Bowman report that recommends that criminal charges be laid against her.
Chaos erupted in the DA again this week when the agreement, brokered by Maimane, between the party and the mayor fell apart.
At the forefront of the latest row between De Lille and the DA is a report that the mayor believes is politically motivated.
“I spent quite a bit of time with my legal team yesterday and the advice I got is that the way this whole matter was handled procedurally by the DA is wrong,” she said.
“The DA had a confidential council report even before it came to council. That confidential report of council was then leaked to the media.
"My lawyers have also sought clarity from Bowman to find out from them why the same company, Bowman, conducting the same investigation on the same charge came to different conclusions.
“It is clear that the report that said I must be disciplined was politically motivated. It is very clear. I have been complaining to Bowman about this political collusion with the DA for months,” she said.
De Lille also claims to have proof that senior members of the DA discussed the council’s confidential report before it was tabled.
National DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi says taking legal action against the party would be barking up the wrong tree.
“She [De Lille] is entitled to exercise her right there, but it will be a misdirection of her legal challenge to take the DA to court if she is. From our side, that is a council report done by an independent company and the DA played no role in it.
“Any court action should be directed to the City of Cape Town and not the DA. There is clear distinction between the process of the party and the process of the city.”
The DA’s chief whip in the City of Cape Town, Shaun August, this week dramatically announced his resignation from his position, the council and the party, saying that he was tired of being in an organisation where black people were foot soldiers and white people made the boardroom decisions.
Four other councillors sympathetic to De Lille followed suit.
The five councillors are set to hold a press conference today in which they plan to take Maimane to task for allegedly saying that they were implicated in the 2 000-page Bowman report.
City Press has learnt that the councillors are considering taking the matter up legally by way of a defamation case if Maimane does not withdraw the alleged remarks.
De Lille said that it appeared Maimane had not read the report himself and had relied on those close to him for a summary.
“Mmusi Maimane did not read the report. He said that the five councillors who have resigned are also implicated in that report. Those five councillors are nowhere in that report. Those people around Mmusi, this cabal, the laptop boys, they are setting him up every time.
"For them to advise him that those names were in that report has now opened him up to a defamation case and that is what those people are going to do,” De Lille said.
“In my agreement with the DA, I spoke directly to Mmusi. When you deal with Mmusi on his own and alone, because I have always refused to deal with the other people except him, he is a completely different person.
"He can see the brand damage that is being done to the party, but then the people around him who don’t want the settlement are now setting him up.
“This has been their modus operandi for a long time. They are the scriptwriters and then Mmusi must just stick to that script.
"They have their own agenda. They were vehemently opposed to Mmusi making that agreement with me. Mmusi must learn to speak for himself – he is the leader of the DA,” she said.
“These people are vicious and it is because Mmusi is not in control – that is the problem.”
There are plans to lay criminal charges against De Lille this week in terms of section 119 of the Municipal Systems Act.
In a statement released this week by the DA’s deputy chairperson of the federal council, Natasha Mazzone says that the report outlines how the mayor broke down the systems of good governance.
“This independent investigation, appointed by the City of Cape Town council, has recommended that Patricia de Lille be criminally charged for inter alia interfering in city tenders, and the legal duties and obligations of the former city manager, Achmat Ebrahim, in instituting legally required disciplinary action against officials guilty of violating the law.
"A level of interference that can be best summed up, by De Lille’s comments, ‘that this matter is going nowhere’,” Mazzone said.
“A 2 000-page report by the independent investigators details in vivid and grim detail how Patricia de Lille’s conduct systematically broke down good governance in the City of Cape Town.”
Meanwhile, ANC councillor Xolani Sotashe told City Press that it was believed that the reports were motivated by a political witch-hunt against De Lille and that, should the party attempt to remove her through a motion of no confidence, the ANC was unlikely to support it.
Malatsi said: “Any hint or insinuation from Patricia that somehow the leader of the DA is not in charge because he is black is racist.
“That allegation is racist, there is no doubt in our minds and in the leadership of the party that Mmusi is in charge as federal leader of the party and that we are rallying behind him to lead the party towards the next election.”
