DA seeks legal advice on De Lille

Membership of the party may cease if she resigns from office

THE DA may have backtracked on its position against mayor Patricia de Lille but, behind closed doors, it has brought new charges against her. This time, De Lille is being charged for comments she made to Eusebius McKaiser on 26 April 2018 on his talk show on Radio 702 / 567 Cape Talk.

During the radio interview, McKaiser asked her if she would resign.

“If I hear you, you are saying, ideally I want to clear my name, Eusebuis, that’s why I am going to court and if I win this battle, and when I win it because I know I’ve done nothing wrong, then the morning after I have won the court case then I will resign from the DA,” he asked.

De Lille replied: “I will walk away. You summed it up correctly. Because really it is OPEN-HANDED: Mayor Patricia de Lille not about hanging on to... I’m serving there at the behest of the DA. The DA has gone through a process and Electoral College, they have put me into that position. I’m not representing my jacket, I’m representing the DA and, if the DA feels it wants to put someone else in that position, they are also entitled to do that.”

In a letter to Glynnis Breytenbach, chairperson of the DA’s federal legal commission (FLC), De Lille said: “I am talking about resigning as mayor of Cape Town, not as a member of the party. Let us not fool ourselves. The dispute between me and the Party is about the position of mayor in Cape Town and not about my membership of the Party. The Party would not have offered me a position in Parliament if it wanted to get rid of me as a member,” she said.

Natasha Mazzone, deputy chair of the DA federal council, said a charge was brought against De Lille in terms of Section 3.5.1.2 of the DA’s constitution.

“It states a member ceases to be a member of the party when he or she publicly