DA foes press Mmusi on who pays his rent
Deputy chair said to have demanded to see bank statements
● DA MP Mike Waters confronted party leader Mmusi Maimane at a heated meeting of its federal executive last week, demanding answers over a lease scandal involving his rented Cape Town home.
Insiders said that Waters told the meeting he wanted to see documentary proof that Maimane was paying rent for the house from his own pocket so that Waters could confidently deal with the issue if the media raised it with him.
“He proceeded to ask how much he [Maimane] pays for rent, whether or not that amount is market related, and went as far as demanding that he produce bank statements to prove that,” said one of the insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is meant to be closed.
Waters, who is one of the three deputy federal chairs of the party, is leading a group of high-profile party figures determined to put Maimane on the ropes over the controversy about his rented home in Cape Town.
Sources in the DA said Waters, who belongs to a camp that opposes Maimane’s leadership, first confronted him about the house at a meeting of the national management committee on Wednesday last week. Two days later, on the Friday, an unrelenting Waters once more took on Maimane at the federal executive meeting.
This follows revelations a fortnight ago that Maimane had for two years declared to parliament a R4m house in the Cape Town southern suburb of Claremont. He listed it as his own even though he does not own it.
Maimane could face the music should someone report him to the ethics committee for misleading parliament by declaring a house that does not belong to him.
It is understood that provincial leaders who are sympathetic to Maimane defended him against accusations from Waters.
A person with knowledge of the matter who spoke to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity confirmed the stand-off but tried to downplay it, saying the federal executive had treated it as a “general discussion”.
“He [Waters] raised the matter both at the national management committee meeting and at the fedex at the weekend.
“[Maimane] first raised the matter during his opening address and it was then discussed. The provincial leaders accepted his explanation.”
When Maimane was confronted by a weekly newspaper asking questions about the house, he backtracked from the parliamentary declaration, and said he was renting the property. However, he failed to produce a lease agreement. It has since emerged that the property is owned by KwaZulu-Natal businessman Wessel Jacobs, who is Maimane’s friend and a trustee of his family trust.
Waters belongs to a group within the DA caucus, the self-styled “1959 committee”, that feels the party has lost its liberal values and direction under Maimane.
Waters, who was recently replaced as DA deputy chief whip by Jacques Julius, declined to comment when approached by the Sunday Times. He said the discussions of the federal executive were private.
Another Maimane sympathiser who was at the meeting had earlier said the DA leader would deal with the issue of the house on an appropriate platform.
DA national spokesperson Solly Malatsi had not responded to questions sent to him at the time of going to print. Maimane’s office had also not responded.
In a statement last week, the party confirmed the federal executive had discussed the matter and was satisfied with Maimane’s explanation. “There is no sense that any law or regulation has been violated,” it said.