DA to announce on Thursday whether De Lille disciplinary hearing will be open to media

Journalists have to wait until Thursday to find out if the DA will grant them access to Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille’s disciplinary hearing.

The party is accusing De Lille of misconduct. The hearing‚ at parliament‚ spent the day on Tuesday thrashing out technical issues – including the composition of the disciplinary panel and De Lille’s demand that the hearing be open to the media.

“We have agreed that we won’t meet tomorrow on Human Rights Day and that the decision of whether the hearing can be open to the public and the media will be announced on Thursday. It will be on Thursday at 9 (am)‚” said De Lille.

“My legal team put all our technical points and all our requests on the table and we put it in writing. So tomorrow the DA team will study that so that on Thursday there are not going to be further arguments‚ there will just be a conclusion on the technical issues.”

De Lille said the hearing is set down for Thursday and Friday but will depend on the DA’s decision on whether it will allow the media access to the hearing or not. She vowed to haul the party before court should it decline to grant the media access.

“We will see progress on Thursday because on Thursday we will know if they hearing will be open to the media. If they say no‚ there will be a delay‚” she said.

“I think we found we found each other today and the legal teams were able to share notes and put some of the concerns forward.”