De Lille to launch new party
Movement all ‘for goodness sake’ will be based on a good foundation with good values
VETERAN politician and former mayor Patricia de Lille has announced that she is launching a political party.
De Lille said it was all “for goodness sake” as she called on the good people of South Africa to join her movement, “based on a good foundation with good values”.
“I believe in a good South Africa where every child will be born in a good hospital, where good doctors provide good health care. Their home will be a good house in a good community where there is a good school.
“In a good South Africa there will be good opportunities to get a good job that offers good reward for good work. To live a good life and share, live and care and know what it means to be good.
“In a good South Africa we will fight corruption and stand up against racism by doing what is good because we will know what it means to be good,” De Lille said
De Lille said her movement intended to contest next year’s elections in all nine provinces.
“Politics as usual has failed too many South Africans and our people have lost faith in politics and politicians. God forbid they should lose faith in our democracy because the people in politics have not lived up to the privilege and responsibility to serve. It is time for a new political order.
“I vowed to focus on addressing the apartheid spatial plan of our city which persists and which relegates poor, mostly black and coloured families, to continued exclusion. It was at this point that a cabal within the DA turned against me. Over the past 18 months I have endured the most vile and relentless dirty-tricks campaign to get rid of me as mayor of Cape Town and to damage my reputation.”
De Lille resigned from her position as mayor and from the party last month.
De Lille founded the Independent Democrats in 2003, which merged with the DA in 2010.
The DA was unfazed by De Lille’s announcement. National spokesperson Solly Malatsi said there were more than 500 political parties in South Africa and De Lille’s party would be one them.
“The real test for any organisation will be at the polls on election day. Ms De Lille’s latest political move is consistent with her brand over the years. She has, whenever it has been politically expedient, moved from one political movement to another. Ms De Lille was at odds with the DA because she refused to be held accountable when revelations of her covering up corruption came to the fore.”
Professor Bheki Mngomezulu, from the University of the Western Cape’s political science faculty, said.
“De Lille went for the wrong option. She had so many options at her disposal. The question is what guarantee do we have that she won’t sell this party? The fact that she was a member of the PAC and left the ID, is not the type of person that I will personally trust …”
The party’s name and logo are expected to be announced in two weeks’ time.
De Lille said she would be funding the new party out of her own pocket.