‘Bossy’ De Lille clashed with party’s top leaders
TENSIONS between Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and powerful figures in the DA national leadership built up before her resignation as the party’s Western Cape leader this week, numerous DA sources claim.
The claims have been dismissed by De Lille, but several sources in the DA this week told the Sunday Times that she decided to step down from her leadership position following serious disagreements with Western Cape premier Helen Zille, party leader Mmusi Maimane and other members of the DA federal executive.
These disagreements began soon after the municipal elections last year.
That was when De Lille wanted to make changes to her mayoral committee that would have dropped long-serving member JP Smith, who is seen as a part of the DA inner circle aligned to Zille, while the mayor’s ally Shaun August was appointed chief whip despite accusations — since substantiated — that he had flouted party procurement regulations over election campaign T-shirts.
On Friday De Lille said there was no bad blood between her and the Western Cape premier.
“I am continuously being confronted with faceless allegations that I am being thwarted for the premiership, that there is some sort of unhappiness, or that I disagree with the national DA leader, Mmusi Maimane. This is untrue.
“People who believe such rumours, which I have denied, actually say that I am a liar. I repeat: I want to focus on making Cape Town, where the voters have given us a historical two-thirds mandate, even better. That is the truth,” said De Lille.
But several sources within the DA have said that there was a growing rift between De Lille and Zille.
A DA insider sympathetic to Zille said De Lille chose to go after growing tired of receiving orders from the premier and her inner circle.
The insider said De Lille, who is a feisty former PAC MP and Independent Democrats leader, was unhappy about taking instructions from other leaders because she considered herself a leader in her own right.
“Everywhere she goes she wants to be in charge. You can’t be a boss everywhere you go. At some point you must be led,” said the well-placed DA member who asked not to be named.
“The reality is that we have to listen to the organisation, if you take it as an instruction, that’s really BREAKFAST BUDDIES: Helen Zille says she and Patricia de Lille meet regularly for breakfast up to you,” said the source.
Zille said she had “a strong, solid working relationship” with De Lille and they “meet regularly for breakfast” to discuss issues of relevance to the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape.
“We often agree and sometimes we don’t. But that is entirely normal in a democratic organisation,” she said.
DA sources said De Lille clashed with the party’s national leadership over the composition of her mayoral committee when she wanted to drop Smith.
But a De Lille sympathiser sought to downplay the divisions, insisting that the mayor had been honest when she said she was quitting the provincial leadership to concentrate on running Cape Town more efficiently.
Smith, during his campaign for the position of deputy caucus leader in the Cape Town council, vowed to deal with the ID influence in their caucus. De Lille tried to remove him from the mayoral committee after he defeated former ID member Brett Herron.
However, an intervention by the DA federal executive led to Smith keeping his job as a mayoral committee member.
At that point, an anti-De Lille camp in the DA began claiming in party circles that Cape Town was not being run as well as it had been when Zille was mayor and that De Lille had placed her allies from the ID in key city positions.
De Lille was sanctioned by Maimane for employing poo thrower and Ses’khona People's Rights Movement leader Loyiso Nkohla as a city council liaison with township communities — a move which reportedly irritated Zille and many in the city’s affluent southern suburbs.
Some weeks later, Zille confirmed to the Sunday Times that DA members had approached her about opposing De Lille for the provincial leadership.
She said she had not decided whether to run.
DA sources said this was also an effort to reduce De Lille’s chances of becoming the next premier of the Western Cape.
Human settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, who is associated with the pro-Zille grouping, is expected to have a fierce contest with August for the interim leadership, and also possibly for the leadership proper during the provincial elective conference in November.
Madikizela, who is the acting leader until an interim leader is elected on February 25, has declared his availability to be nominated for election.
August said he had been asked by DA members to make himself available.
On Friday Zille did not rule out the possibility of contesting the leadership at the November conference.
She is said to be consulting her family about the matter.
I repeat: I want to focus on making Cape Town even better We often agree and sometimes we don’t. But that is entirely normal
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