De Lille vows to ‘ fight to bitter end’
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has indicated that she may not leave her office on Wednesday, as was announced earlier in 2018.
Instead‚ she said she was heading back to the courts in an attempt to set aside two forensic reports which were adopted by the city council last week – one of which recommended criminal charges against her. “Unfortunately I am going back to court and I want to go to court before Wednesday to try and review and to set aside this report.
“So‚ if anyone of you asks me‚ ‘Are you going to resign on the 31st or are you not going to resign?’‚ I am going to tell you to wait for the 31st because it’s not the 31st. My focus is now on clearing my name and I think I need to be respected for that because we believe in the rule of law‚” she said on Monday.
De Lille was addressing the Cape Town Press Club when she revealed that she would “fight to the bitter end” to clear her name.
In August‚ DA leader Mmusi Maimane announced De Lille’s resignation as Cape Town mayor. At the time, he said the party had reached an agreement with the mayor‚ with whom it had been at loggerheads for months. It also dropped internal disciplinary processes against her.
De Lille explained on Monday that when she decided she would vacate her office at the end of October, it was because they were expecting the law firm Bowman to publish its report on her at the time.
De Lille said the law firm instead published two reports‚ one clearing her of wrongdoing and the other calling for criminal charges and internal disciplinary steps against her.
Earlier‚ Maimane told journalists in a parliament briefing that he expected De Lille to leave office on Wednesday.