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It’s not over yet, says expelled Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, who is taking her fight with the Democratic Alliance to the next level as she seeks leave to appeal the party’s decision to terminate her party membership.
A disgruntled De Lille held a media briefing on Tuesday – just hours after her own party, led by federal executive chairperson James Selfe and deputy federal chairperson Natasha Mazzone – announced that her membership had been rescinded.
During the briefing, De Lille promised the public that the fight was not over because she would be going to court on Friday to seek leave to appeal the DA’s decision. The party had taken the decision to rescind her membership knowing that it would cause the ripple effect of unseating her as mayor and dissolving her mayoral committee.
“I am ready to continue this fight; now it has become clear that there has always been a predetermined outcome from all the party’s proceedings against me.
“They have really jumped the gun, but I can assure you that this fight is not over yet. I will be, on Friday, going to court to seek leave to appeal the party’s decision,” said De Lille.
A resilient De Lille said that this was an attempt by the party to take “a shortcut” in removing her from her office, because they had “failed to do so through proper procedures”.
“The party has no evidence of wrongdoing against me; what they are doing is a witch hunt and an attempt at trying to get something to tick against me, but at the end I will design my own future,” said De Lille.
De Lille said she would be meeting with the city manager and the deputy mayor to get clarity over who will be in charge of the city until the court proceedings.
“I have been made aware that the deputy mayor [Ian Neilson] has already held meetings with the staff in my office,” said De Lille.
A playful De Lille said that regardless of the fact that her utterances during a radio interview, on Radio 702 with Eusebius McKaiser, led to this current debacle, she would continue doing radio interviews.
“Part of what I fought for during apartheid was the freedom of speech, so I will continue practising my freedom of speech,” said De Lille.
She may have lost her mayoral post, but her sense of humour was still intact as she quipped: “If things don’t work out for me, I have a great candidate in mind to replace me as mayor, Chester Missing [a renowned puppet known for his political satire].”
De Lille said she did not regret joining the DA as the party embraced values that she herself ascribed too, at the time she joined the party.
According to De Lille her transformation plans in 2014 fuelled the prolonged “witch hunt” by mayoral committee member JP Smith and Neilson.
De Lille explained that she needed time to talk to her lawyers and that seeking leave to appeal only on Friday gave her that time.
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