Cape Town ANC branch to lay criminal charges against De Lille
10 October 2017
Cape Town – The Western Cape ANC's Dullah Omar region announced on Tuesday that it would lodge a criminal complaint against Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille over security upgrades carried out at her home.
Members then plan to head to the Public Protector’s office to ask for an investigation into allegations of corruption against the mayor stemming back to 2014.
On Tuesday morning, the Dullah Omar region's Khaya Yozi confirmed to News24 that he was on his way to the Cape Town Central police station to lodge the complaint.
He said the criminal complaint had to do with security upgrades done at De Lille’s home, which the ANC believes was paid for with taxpayers’ money.
De Lille has denied this.
ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs on Tuesday told News24 it was not involved in lodging the criminal complaint about the security upgrades at De Lille’s home, but it did plan to lodge a separate criminal complaint against her over the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police.
The ANC in the Western Cape believes Metro Police members are breaking the law by exceeding their mandates.
Over the past two weeks, De Lille has been in focus due to her controversial decision to get rid of the City of Cape Town’s special investigations unit (SIU).
She, according to emails, wanted the unit shut down. However, its mandate and name was changed.
The claim about alleged illegal building work at her house, as well as a claim about alleged corruption – in that procurement processes were not being followed in De Lille's office – are contained in a submission by City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety, security and social services, JP Smith.
Smith had headed the special investigations unit.
In a submission dated August 20, about the changes to the SIU, Smith questioned why De Lille would order this and said one of the reasons he could think of was that some members of the City's investigations unit had previously worked for the VIP unit.
"The head informed me that members of the unit had mentioned to him that they had witnessed irregularities in relation to the Mayor, e.g. that building work outside of the security policy of the city had been undertaken at her home at the expense of the Council," Smith had said in this submission.
Last week, about 10 ANC members went to De Lille's house to try and inspect the security there.
A document that ANC Dullah Omar region chairperson Xolani Sotashe provided said that "approval was required for costs incurred of installing improved" security measures at De Lille’s house. The total is R702 075.45.
However, City of Cape Town Speaker Dirk Smit issued a statement saying an amount of approximately R451 000 was paid by Council for security measures.
In a statement, De Lille said: "Regarding renovations at my house, these were paid for by myself and I am prepared to make the proof of these payments made by myself known as part of the proper legal processes."
