De Lille sends lawyer's letter to DA over 'defaming canvassing script'
2 March 2019
Good party leader Patricia De Lille has served the Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership with a lawyer's letter, demanding that it remove a paragraph from its call centre canvassing script that allegedly defames her.
In the letter to top tier DA national leadership, served on Thursday, De Lille says that the 2019 general elections canvassing script unlawfully implicates her in wrongdoing.
She took exception to a portion of the script which apparently contained calls for "Standard Responses to be used".
When canvassers are asked about infighting and De Lille, canvassers are allegedly asked to respond: "We fired Patricia de Lille because she was involved in all sorts of wrongdoing in the City of Cape Town. The DA doesn't allow corruption and will take action against anyone, even our own members".
De Lille alleged the script suggested that call centre personnel say she was fired and guilty of wrongdoing.
"The statement is untrue and provided to the call centre personnel solely to bring our [client] into disrepute," her lawyer's letter to the DA read.
Her lawyers further state that De Lille was not fired by the DA.
"It is true that the DA attempted to dismiss her, by reason of a statement she had made expressing her intent to resign at a future date. The attempt was declared unlawful in the Western Cape High Court.
"Moreover, not a shred of evidence exists that Ms de Lille has been guilty of any wrongdoing and certainly not any corruption. The publication of the untrue defamatory statements concerning our client is unlawful."
DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi's only response was that the lawyer's letter from De Lille was with their legal team, who would "respond in due course".
