DA must apologise to Good leader
WITH just over two weeks to go to the elections, the DA suffered another major defeat against its former mayor, Patricia de Lille, after the party was ordered to apologise to her over a campaign.
Yesterday, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) ruled that the DA had violated the Electoral Code of Conduct when it gave instructions to its campaign call centre operators to tell people the party was canvassing for votes after De Lille had been fired as Cape Town mayor.
The DA has been ordered “to cease and desist from making any further false statements in relation to Ms De Lille being ‘fired’ from the DA” and “to issue a public apology for the false statement it published in respect of Ms De Lille being ‘fired’ within three days of the receipt of this letter”.
De Lille, who is now leader of the Good party, has in the past two years scored several legal victories against the DA
But the DA said yesterday it was not taking the decision lying down and that it would approach the court.
De Lille said she was happy with the IEC’s decision.
“I welcome the IEC’s finding that the DA’s claim to have fired me from the position of mayor of Cape Town is a lie.
“I note that the IEC said it did not have all the facts to pronounce on the DA’s corruption claim, and will now refer this aspect of my complaint to the Electoral Court,” said De Lille.
DA party representative at the IEC, Mike Moriarty, said they would challenge this decision as it was wrong.
Moriarty said they would not apologise to De Lille at this stage, pending their review application in court.
He said this case was similar to the Nkandla one in 2014 when they were taken to court by the ANC after the DA sent SMS messages to voters that former president Jacob Zuma had stolen money for his house in Nkandla.
In the Constitutional Court judgment on the Nkandla SMS case, the judges ruled in favour of the DA.
Moriarty said they stood a good chance of winning the case.
“Our problem is not with the law, it is with the IEC. We sent our documents to the lawyers, and we are challenging it in court,” said Moriarty.
De Lille said she believed the DA had spread lies against her in its campaign.
“I have been forced to spend much of the past two years defending myself from scurrilous and false lies spread about me by the DA,” she said.
“Besides the IEC matter, I have had to take the DA to court three times in order to stop the party from tarnishing my reputation, winning each case,” said De Lille.
I have been forced to spend the past two years defending myself Patricia de Lille Leader of Good