Mystery surrounds the alleged axing of Western Cape community safety MEC Lennit Max.

It was reported last night that Premier Helen Zille sacked the controversial member of her provincial cabinet.

However, Zille could not be contacted for comment, and neither could her spokesman, Trace Venter, or DA chief whip in Parliament Ian Davidson.

The entire Western Cape leadership of the DA appeared to have gone to ground, their phones switched off.

It is rumoured that DA councillor and the chairman of the safety and security portfolio committee of the City of Cape Town, JP Smith, would take Max's place.

However, he vehemently denied it.

"I don't know anything. You are going to have to speak to the premier's office. I don't even know if it is true. I just heard it on the radio," he said.

But the ANC's leader in the provincial legislature, Lynne Brown, said she believed that the rumours of Max's axing were true.

"Now that Patricia de Lille is joining the DA, I cannot imagine her and Max getting along," said Brown.

Max, the former Western Cape Independent Democrat leader, was axed by De Lille in 2005. He claimed at the time that she had accepted party donations from a Cape Flats gangster.

Before he entered politics, Max was the Western Cape police commissioner.

But he resigned in 2003, citing personal reasons and an "intolerable" situation in the provincial police's top management.

But the then MEC for community safety and security, Leonard Ramatlakane, said Max was not able to fight crime adequately in hot spots.

When Zille announced her all-male cabinet in May last year she came under fire from opposition parties.

"But she was adamant that they were the best people for the job," said Brown.

Max did not return calls last night, and neither did his spokesman.