De Lille resigns as W Cape DA leader

Mayor wants to focus on ‘taking Cape Town to the next level’

MAYOR Patricia de Lille resigned as the leader of the DA in the Western Cape. In her resignation letter addressed to party leader Mmusi Maimane, De Lille said she wished to thank him for his support.

De Lille said she wanted to focus on her role as mayor and on the roll-out of the Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (OTDP).

With the ODTP now in full swing with the four mini-mayors hard at work, De Lille said “the responsibility of a two-thirds majority weighs heavily on me”.

“Taking Cape Town to the next level of government is an exciting prospect, but one that will take all of my time.

“As we position the party to be the next national government, I believe that those of us in government and other spheres have a duty to build the party’s experience in, and capacity for, public management in preparation for effective custodianship of the state.”

The province was ready for “fresh ideas and fresh leadership from a new generation”, De Lille said.

She also set out her list of leadership objectives she wanted to achieve:

Leadership that makes rural issues its own.

Leadership committed to winning new DA supporters in every municipality, including the metro.

Leadership that wants to make a political home for everyone.

Leadership that communicates that we are a party of government. Leadership that engages. Leadership that shares the lessons of government.

De Lille had no plans to run for the office of premier when elections roll around in 2019 but, in an exclusive interview with the Cape Argus yesterday she said the DA’s constitution is set up in such a way that the provincial leader of the party isn’t automatically a candidate for premiership, and premiers were elected via internal electoral colleges.

“If I want to run for premiership in 2019, I can,” De Lille said, but indicated her focus remains firmly on her second term as mayor of Cape Town.

Cape Town was named one of the top 20 cities in the world for foreign direct investment, De Lille said, and that too was testament to the importance of her focusing on her role as mayor. Now was not the time to rest on her laurels as she continued the DA’s strategy to put “Cape Town on the global map”.

De Lille told the Cape Argus the next few months would be exciting as the implementation of the ODTP continued with restructured city directorates and the areabased management more focused on community needs. –