A no, no, no from De Lille on exit from office

MAYOR Patricia de Lille was cagey when asked yesterday whether she would be leaving office at the end of the month.

De Lille reacted for the first time to the allegations levelled against her in the law firm Bowman Gilfillan’s report into maladministration and corruption and on reports that she would not be leaving office on October 31, as agreed with the DA months ago.

“That was Rodney Lentit who said that I will be not be resigning. I had a conversation with him while in Amsterdam (waiting for a flight) where he told me: ‘Should they continue with charging you, you should stay on as mayor.’ That was a statement by Rodney,” she said.

Asked outright if she would be going, De Lille said: “No, no, no, I am following due process. My lawyers have written to Bowmans to seek clarity. Everyone is speaking as if the end of the month is tomorrow.

“The end of the month is next week, Wednesday.”

Asked again if she’d be leaving, she said: “No, no, no.”

Pressed again, De Lille again said: “No, no, no, I am taking it one day at a time.”

Lentit, a close confidant, claimed De Lille was considering his advice not to step down.

Bowmans’ report into corruption and maladministration at the City of Cape Town will be before the council today and councillors will have to consider if criminal charges should be pursued against De Lille, transport and urban development official Brett Herron and suspended transport commissioner Melissa Whitehead.

Compiled by lawyer Randall van Voore, the 2 000-page report into the suspected acts of corruption relates to a tender for electric buses by Chinese manufacturer BYD, and De Lille preventing former city manager Achmat Ebrahim from reporting irregularities with a R40 million tender to procure bus chassis from Volvo.

De Lille said Bowmans overreached their mandate approved by the council on January 5. |