The Democratic Alliance (DA) has admitted they offered Patricia de Lille a seat in Parliament in exchange for her stepping down as the City of Cape Town’s Executive Mayor. Reports of the offer began emerging as early as January, when De Lille claimed in court and the media that the political party had told her that she would become an MP if she vacated the mayor’s office.
In January, De Lille argued that if she was not good enough for the City, she would not be good enough for Parliament.
Reports showed that DA leader Mmusi Maimane and James Selfe were tasked with effectively “dealing” with De Lille and offered her the position. On Wednesday morning, De Lille confirmed on CapeTalk radio show host Eusebius McKaiser that she received an offer from Maimane, saying that she cannot be a member of Parliament without being a member of the party. Natasha Mazzone, the DA’s federal executive deputy chairperson, told CapeTalk that Maimane had already admitted to the offer in public, which actually took place last year.
Speaking to Mail & Guardian, Mazzone said that Maimane had indeed offered De Lille an MP position, but the offer had taken place before the allegations against her surfaced. “She would not now be fit to be MP,” Mazzone said.
The DA federal executive made the announcement that it had ended De Lille’s membership on Tuesday, after they believed she had breached the party’s constitution during an interview with McKaiser in April. During the interview in question, De Lille made the public statement that she would resign once her name was cleared. Thereafter, she argued that she was talking about resigning as mayor, not from the DA.
.@PatriciaDeLille tells me that @MmusiMaimane offered her to go to Parliament as an MP in exchange for her walking away as Mayor of Cape Town. Mmusi, can we talk? Is that true? @Radio702 @CapeTalk
— Eusebius McKaiser (@Eusebius) May 9, 2018
In the meantime, an impasse has been reached within Cape Town’s leadership. Acting mayor Ian Neilson claims that De Lille is out of office, while her legal team claims that they have filed court papers to challenge the cessation of her membership. De Lille will appear in the Western Cape High Court on Friday in a bid to have her membership reestablished.
I’m happy to announce that @AdvDali_Mpofu will join my legal team tomorrow in the High court.
— Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) May 10, 2018
Your move @PatriciaDeLille #deLille https://t.co/X67RfJlPi9
— Aarti Narsee (@ajnarsee) May 10, 2018
Picture: Twitter