Patricia de Lille on her war with the DA
Embattled Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille talks to YOU about her bruising encounter with the Democratic Alliance
SHE’S feeling on top of the world – you can hear it in Patricia de Lille’s voice. Even though it’s late at night and she’s had a day packed with meetings and interviews, the veteran politician is in top form. “I’m happy,” she tells us.
It’s amazing the difference a few days can make. When we met up with her at her home in Pinelands, Cape Town, a week earlier Patricia (67) looked tired and worn down. And she didn’t mince her words. The past eight months had been “absolute hell”, she said.
At the time she was licking her wounds after being expelled from the Democratic Alliance and unceremoniously booted out as the city’s mayor. Having been given just 24 hours to vacate her office she and her staff had frantically scrambled to pack up seven years of memories – pictures, small gifts and framed newspaper clippings.
These were carted off in boxes to her home – but they weren’t there for long.
After taking legal action against her own party she recently had the satisfaction of being able to move some of her precious mementoes back into her office. This was after the high court in Cape Town ruled in her favour, declaring it was in the best interests of the city that she be reinstated as mayor.
She says her staff are over the moon to have her back.
“They were like orphans with me gone,” she says. “It’s like Mom is back.” But she’s not out of the woods just yet – on 25 May a court was due to start weighing up the legalities of the DA’s decision to rescind her party membership. And she and her staff are well aware if things don’t go her way they might be packing boxes again.
SHE’S never been one to back down from a fight.
In 1988 she was elected vice president of the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu), the highest position for a woman in the trade union movement at the time. And in the ’90s she became a household name as she led the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) delegation at the Codesa negotiations for SA’s new democracy.
In 1999 she blew the whistle on the arms deal scandal in which former president Jacob Zuma was implicated.
And now she’s centre stage again. This time the thing she’s fighting for is her reputation, she says.
There have been allegations that she
helped cover up corruption, and that she appointed friends and family in municipal positions. But Patricia maintains she hasn’t seen a shred of evidence.
“It’s about factions within the DA who don’t like it when I don’t toe the party line,” she says.
Some of the complaints relate to her management style. She’s been accused of being autocratic and refusing to listen to advice.
Patricia says she does everything passionately and speculates that this may create the impression she’s difficult. “I only need six hours of sleep a night.”
In February the party launched a vote of no confidence against her.
“It made me so sad, it hurt me,” she recalls. The motion failed by one vote.
But she was in hot water again in April when in a radio interview she said she’d be willing to walk away from the mayor’s post once she’d been given a chance to clear her name.
According to the DA these comments provided grounds for the party to revoke her membership because the DA constitution states that a “member ceases to be a member” when “he or she publicly declares his or her intention to resign”.
It’s the DA’s interpretation of the clause that Patricia is now challenging in court.
“I’m fighting fit for the next round,” she tells us.
But why is she fighting so hard to stay in a party that no longer wants her?
“If I resign, people will think it means I’m guilty,” Patricia explains. “I’m fighting to clear my name – my integrity, name and honour are priceless.”
Although she’s been linked to the ANC and EFF, Patricia is guarded about her future plans.
“I want to design my new future without a dark cloud hanging over me. I have to clear my name from within the DA with all the processes at my disposal. I take every day as it comes.”
But some of her colleagues say by refusing to go she’s relegated herself to the role of a “lame duck” mayor.
Patricia says this is nonsense and she’s navigating this difficult time by working “even harder than before”.
“I keep a diary every day and put it on Twitter for everyone to see. I don’t want to get paid for doing nothing. I work at least 10 hours and I don’t sit in my office and drink tea the whole day.”
PATRICIA’S ongoing battle with the DA isn’t the only struggle she’s facing. She was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx in 1998 and although she’s been in remission since 2005 the chemotherapy destroyed her salivary glands, leaving her with a permanently dry mouth.
On top of this her husband, Edwin de Lille (70), suffered two strokes in 2012. Patricia and a helper take care of him at home and he’s only recently regained the ability to speak.
Patricia can’t hide her motherly pride as she speaks about her son, Alistair (44), who’s due to walk down the aisle soon.
She admits that sometimes retirement seems like an attractive option because it would leave her with more time to play golf.
“But only half-days,” she adds. “I want to continue serving my country.”