DA wants De Lille to quit voluntarily
The DA is pushing for the voluntary resignation of beleaguered Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille, who has now been effectively stripped of all of her powers as mayor.
Sources say that if De Lille refuses to resign, the party will table another motion of no confidence in her.
De Lille has lost the support of a majority of the 154-strong DA caucus in the city after being accused of corruption and maladministration. Earlier in February, she survived a DA-sponsored no-confidence vote by a single vote, largely because of support from opposition parties, mainly the ANC, and partly because some DA councillors have remained loyal to her.
It is understood that De Lille has the support of 40 councillors and because she cannot attend DA caucus meetings she is hamstrung and unable to push through decisions.
“She is now just a ceremonial mayor … the party is negotiating with her for her departure … if she does not leave another motion of no confidence will be tabled … she may have survived the first one, but she is unlikely to survive the next one,” said a DA insider, speaking on condition of anonymity.
De Lille was earlier removed from the city’s droughtresponse team in January, leaving her deputy, Ian Neilson, and mayoral committee member Xanthea Limberg in charge. Another DA source said De Lille was unlikely to resign as she feared such a move would be a tacit admission of guilt.
De Lille said: “I have received several settlement proposals from the DA leadership over the past few weeks. Some of these are already in the public domain — such as the offers I received to take up a seat in the National Assembly. All of these proposals have been initiated by the DA leadership. “I remain consistent and resolute that I have been wrongly accused of a number of serious charges. In the case of the Steenhuisen report, I have already been found guilty without a proper hearing or without due process. I am seeking to have those findings reviewed and set aside in the Western Cape High Court,” she said.
“These allegations and accusations have caused me great reputational damage and have damaged our party and our flagship government.
“Under these circumstances, my focus must be to clear my name and to restore my personal reputation and that of the government I have led for seven years. I am therefore focused on preparing for my disciplinary hearing.”
DA federal council chairman James Selfe confirmed on Sunday the party was “trying to settle, but obviously not at a cost”.
“We are trying to settle … [but] at the moment [negotiations] are not very encouraging,” he said.