Patricia de Lille 'sacking' haunts DA​

The knives are out for long-serving DA federal council chairman James Selfe as the party battles to manage the fallout over the axing of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.

The Sunday Times has established from well-placed multiple sources that several senior leaders of the DA want Selfe to be held “accountable” for the party’s messy handling of the De Lille matter.

DA insiders this week indicated that party leader Mmusi Maimane and chief whip John Steenhuisen were among those who have privately expressed unhappiness over Selfe’s management of the De Lille affair.

Sources said Maimane, Steenhuisen and other DA leaders started pointing fingers at Selfe after De Lille defeated them in the high court, which ordered the party to halt De Lille’s dismissal. 

Those arguing for Selfe to be axed say that the DA, in its legal arguments, should have stuck to invoking its recall clause which empowers it to remove defiant representatives.

They claim Selfe weakened their case by including the argument that De Lille had axed herself as a party member by saying during a talk radio 702 interview that she would walk away from the DA as soon as her name is cleared.

The sources have indicated that the issue of tackling Selfe was expected to be raised from the floor at the next DA federal council meeting due to take place next month.

“There’s ...  murmurs that there’s somebody who has to be held accountable. But that will be dealt with at the next federal council meeting,” said one source, who is a senior MP. 

Maimane declined to comment.

Selfe said decisions related to the DA were taken by the collective leadership.

Read the full story in the Sunday Times.