DA ‘strained and confused’

THE DA is this morning in all likelihood circling its wagons, and drawing up a new plan to get rid of Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille after another plan to get rid of her was scuppered by the Western Cape High Court.

The DA’s Federal Legal Commission had ended De Lille’s party membership on April 26, after she had granted a telephonic interview with radio talk-show host Eusebius McKaiser. The substance of the interview was that De Lille said she would resign from the party once she had been cleared in a disciplinary process.

The DA used that interview, charging that De Lille had violated the party’s cessation clause, which means one’s party membership ceases on publicly announcing an intention to resign.

Yesterday, the Western Cape High Court found that the DA appeared to be “strained and confused”; that it had failed to follow the right procedures in axing De Lille; and that the party had not followed its own constitution.

Immediately afterwards the DA, smarting from another defeat, announced they would take the judgment on review, while later releasing a press statement again insinuating that De Lille was corrupt, never mind the fact that the party’s disciplinary process against her had stalled.

This morning De Lille will be back at court for a continuation of the review of internal party charges against her. De Lille wants the party to submit evidence used to charge her so that this can be tested, a demand the DA has refused.

The party insists that De Lille does not have the support of the DA caucus in the City of Cape Town, where most have voted to have her axed after the party amended its constitution to expedite her removal.

The more this saga drags on the more the DA’s internal politics are being exposed, and those who might have considered the party at next year’s ballot will likely think twice. The party will have to explain its haste in trying to rid itself of De Lille when then leader Helen Zille spent the better part of a year courting and cajoling her.