ANC Statement on the looming court verdict on the matter of DA vs the Mayor of Cape Town

26 June 2018

The ANC in the Western Cape has watched the frantic and maniacal attempt of the Democratic Alliance to rid itself of its mayor with incredulity. Our concern has been on the impact of this morass, now playing itself in our courts, to the dignity of the office of the mayor and the erosion of confidence in that office crippling its ability to serve the city.

As the ANC we long held the view, which as been skillfully demonstrated in court, that the Democratic Alliance case against the Mayor was flawed from the start. The case was not based on any genuine application of their own constitution or need to enforce its clauses but an irrational and desperate attempt to get rid of De Lille by all available means.

The courts demostrated that this particular clause in the DA, that seeks to punish those who express intent to leave the party is not applicable where there is conditionality, as has been demostrated by DA where many DA leaders, including Maimane had expressed an intent to leave the party if certain conditions persisted and this was not taken as an absolute intent to leave the party.

The lawyers therefore correctly argued that it is unjustifiable that when it comes to De Lille, the application of the clause would be different. This further demonstrates that all this DA circus, that is abusing our courts and the Mayor herself, is nothing more than a simple desire to get rid of De Lille as Mayor and put a puppet who will serve only the DA handlers and not the people of Cape Town.

As the courts have shown, the DA's desperation to rid themselves of De Lille has resulted in DAs clumsy process of having her cessation of membership and recall from her post happening in reverse which defies commonsense. As the courts have shown, you cannot recall someone who is not your member so if De Lille party membership had already been revoked in April, why still consider recalling her recall in May. The DA is proving incompetent even at cooking a fake dismissal.

We expect the courts to restore commonsense and respect for office and its holders. 

Issued by Faiez Jacobs, Provincial Secretary, ANC Western Cape