DA MP takes swipe at De Lille as party bosses meet to decide her fate

That was the swipe DA Federal Executive Deputy Chairperson Natasha Mazzone took at Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille in a media statement on Wednesday after De Lille made submissions to the party’s top brass on why she should keep her job.

“We note that De Lille has chosen to make her submissions public and will not allow this to affect the procedures of Federal Executive in any way‚” said Mazzone.

She said the Federal Executive would meet on Friday and Saturday to “properly and fairly apply their minds” to De Lille’s submissions before deciding her future in “due course”.

De Lille said in her submissions that she doubts she will remain Cape Town Mayor and has “little faith in a positive result” from the party leadership. 

“As you may understand‚ given the circumstances‚ I have little faith in a positive result. The party is going through the motions in my view in order to implement its new recall clause‚” she wrote in a letter to the party’s bosses.

De Lille said she would go to court if she was unsuccessful.

The DA’s caucus in the City of Cape Town last week effectively ousted De Lille in an internal vote of no confidence‚ but the decision needed to be ratified by the party’s federal executive before it took effect. This followed after the party implemented a clause that‚ essentially‚ allowed it to remove office bearers internally.

De Lille narrowly survived a motion of no confidence in the city council in February in which the opposition supported her.

In her submissions‚ she requested some of the top party members recuse themselves‚ because of their “clear bias that they have displayed publicly”. These include party leader Mmusi Maimane‚ MP Natasha Mazzone‚ Federal Executive chairperson James Selfe and Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela.

Mazzone confirmed they will discuss this issue when the Federal Executive convenes later this week.