DA's Beaufort West mayor resigns
28 February 2017
Cape Town – Beaufort West municipal mayor Djorge Malooi has resigned from his position, the DA in the Western Cape said on Tuesday.
Acting DA provincial leader Bonginkosi Madikizela said he was in the municipality on Sunday to accept the resignation. Malooi cited family matters for his decision.
On Monday, DA Western Cape caucus chairperson Rodney Lentit resigned from the provincial legislature.
Madikizela said the party had had some challenges in the municipality since reclaiming it from the ANC in the August 2016 local government elections.
ANC chief whip in Beaufort West, Mcebisi Kilani, said the DA had been "hiding" Malooi's resignation.
He said Malooi had been labelled "inefficient", and that his own deputy Anna Slabbert once publicly reprimanded him.
The ANC in the Western Cape claimed on Monday that the recent resignations were part of "deep divisions and dissatisfaction" in the DA, that the coloured majority in the province was being sidelined.
Madikizela said the two resignations were completely unrelated. Lentit resigned to go into a business he had been setting up for some time, he said.
"I honestly don't want to dignify anything the ANC says with a response," Madikizela said.
It was the third-high profile resignation in the party in a month, after Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille resigned from her position as DA provincial leader on January 30.
Lentit told News24 on Monday that his resignation was "straightforward" and that he would remain a party member and campaign for the DA for the 2019 general elections.
Provincial spokesperson Anneke Scheepers told News24 that the resignations were unrelated.
"Regrettably, Mr Malooi has to focus his attention elsewhere, but the DA is thankful for the role he played in bringing change to Beaufort West," she said.
The DA would focus on winning the by-election in Ward 7, where Malooi was a councillor.
