DA trying to force me to quit, says defiant De Lille
● Embattled Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille is under no illusions about her future.
“There’s what they call . . . constructive dismissal, where they just pile up everything against you,” she said this week in an interview. “Even if 10 more complaints come against me, the principle is that they need to be tested under due process and that’s all I’m asking.”
Constructive dismissal refers to a situation where an employer makes conditions so intolerable for an employee that the employee has to resign.
“If people don’t like me, if people hate me or whatever, I am entitled to due process [but] there’s impatience and I’ve been found guilty already,” said De Lille.
She has been embroiled in a war of words with the DA leadership for months after allegations of nepotism, maladministration and corruption were levelled against her.
The DA federal executive, the party’s highest decision-making body, instituted a probe led by the party’s chief whip, John Steenhuisen.
The Steenhuisen investigation found that she had a case to answer and the federal executive ruled that she be formally charged and investigated by the party’s federal legal commission.
This week the party blamed her for the City of Cape Town’s failure to obtain a clean audit from the auditor-general for the first time in four years, and an urgent city council sitting has been scheduled for February 25 to vote her out in a no-confidence motion.
But De Lille has remained defiant, saying it is unfair to blame her alone for the problems in the administration of the city.
“It’s become fashionable to blame me for everything, [but] I’ve got mayoral committee members and I delegate some of my responsibility to mayco members such as deputy mayor Ian Neilson.
“Yes, at the end of the day the buck stops with me within the framework of the law . . . but the total leadership of the city includes the mayoral committee, deputy mayor, city manager and executive directors,” said De Lille.
De Lille, whose career includes 17 years as an MP for the PAC and the Independent Democrats — which merged with the DA in 2011 — said she had no regrets about joining the DA even though its leadership had turned against her.
She said she would decide later whether to remain in the party.
“I didn’t lead the ID into the DA to get any special treatment or be done any favours . . . even today I seek no special favours,” said De Lille.