De Lille, DA claim win in high court referral

GOOD party leader Patricia de Lille and the DA have claimed victory after the Western Cape High Court made an interlocutory judgment and referred their dispute to the Electoral Court as the more “appropriate forum”.

The judgment follows a ruling by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) which ordered the DA to “cease and desist” from saying De Lille was fired as mayor of Cape Town and ordered the DA to publicly apologise to De Lille within three days.

De Lille headed to the High Court to obtain an interdict to stop the DA from instructing tele-canvassers to tell potential voters she was fired.

Yesterday, Justice Robert Martin adjourned the proceedings and said the appropriate forum to deal with the matter was the Electoral Court.

“It might create a situation where there are two opposing rulings on this matter at the end of the day when the Electoral Court makes a ruling on the matter of the review that is pending before it and that is completely unacceptable within our jurisprudence and therefore this court will adjourn this matter without establishing a date and will furthermore make no order as to costs whatsoever,” said Martin.

The court had to decide whether or not it is the most appropriate forum for exercising jurisdiction in the matter or whether there is a more appropriate forum for dealing with the matter.

“This dispute concerns rivalry and friction between two political organisations. Both of who, in two weeks time will be contesting the election. These elections are also a critical element of the manner in which our constitutional democracy operates.”

De Lille entered into an agreement with the party in 2018, in which she agreed to willingly step down and the party would withdraw all internal charges against her.

She said the judgment represented a victory as it maintains the status that the DA “lied” about her being fired.

“It is the DA’s right to take the decision to review, but my victory is that while they’re taking the matter on review, the decision of the IEC stands under such time as a court can review. This for me is good enough, they don’t want to apologise,” said De Lille.

The DA also reacted positively, saying the judgment confirmed the matter brought before it by De Lille was not urgent and postponed it indefinitely as it is best considered by the Electoral Court and has vindicated the DA’s position throughout.

DA MP Mike Moriarty said: “De Lille has tried three times to bring an urgent motion before the High Court and all three attempts have failed. We stand by our position Ms De Lille jumped before she was pushed and she faces criminal charges for a variety of wrongdoing during her tenure.”