Former Bitou (Plettenberg Bay) Municipality speaker Johan Brümmer claimed his axing from the DA had the hallmarks of a conspiracy.

He alleged he was dismissed for opposing decisions made by the party leadership in local matters.

Now he has decided to take the party to court, saying the DA had taken away his only source of income as he had been a "career politician" for the last 12 years.

Brümmer said he was dropped from the party after owing it R5621 - an amount, he said, he paid up.

"Sure, you can say that I should get another job but I'm a middle-aged white man, where do I get a job?

"I'm a career politician, I've been a politician for 12 years and I've got another 12 years ahead me of me.

What this [decision] effectively does is that it just wipes my career out," said Brummer, adding that he had no other "fall-back".

While in the DA, he had earned a salary of R36000 a month.

Jemayne Andrews, a DA ward councillor in Cape Town who was also axed by the party for failing to pay her dues, said she would not accept the decision, and indicated she, too, would challenge her dismissal.

But DA federal executive chairman James Selfe dismissed claims of skulduggery in Brümmer's dismissal, saying the former speaker was free to challenge the DA in court.

DA councillors who were elected on May 18 last year were given until the end of 2011 to pay their dues.

Selfe said councillors who had complained of financial hardships were given an extension until the end of March, and this was again extended to the end of July.

"There are lots and lots of paid-up members but we're now dealing with outstanding ones," said Selfe, adding that every councillor had been afforded ample opportunity to prove that they had settled their accounts accordingly.

Axed councillors would either be replaced after by-elections, or by the next in line on the party's proportional list.