The Democratic Alliance has moved to suspend Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille from her post midway through an investigation into serious allegations of maladministration in the city and after months of increasingly public infighting among its top officials.
The party confirmed on Friday that De Lille, the speaker of the city council Dirk Smit and the DA’s chief whip in the city, Shaun Abrahams, have been asked to give reasons why they should not be suspended.
The move follows two separate investigations into the running of the city. The one, conducted by a sub-committee, focused on problems within the DA caucus in the city and has concluded its work. Its findings prompted the decision to ask the mayor to give reasons why she should not be suspended, party officials told the African News Agency (ANA).
“The sub-committee has now completed its work, and has found sufficient management and governance-related challenges prevalent in the DA’s City of Cape Town caucus, negatively impacting the City’s mandate to govern efficiently for the people of Cape Town,” the party said in a statement.
“In the light of these developments, it was the view of the Federal Executive that the Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia De Lille, needed to be placed on suspension pending the outcome of these ongoing investigations.
“The Federal Executive has also asked her to supply reasons why she should not resign as the mayor. At this stage, no decision, other than suspension has been made, pending the provision of the reasons requested by the Federal Executive.”
The second investigation is ongoing and must deliver a report by December 29. It is being carried out by an external investigator and focuses on allegations of meddling in procurement and burying reports of financial losses linked to the local metro bus service.
The DA termed the allegations that emanate from an affidavit by Craig Kesson, the executive director of De Lille’s department, as “troubling”.
The chairman of the DA’s federal executive James Selfe stressed that the party’s decision on De Lille should not be read as a indication of the findings of the second investigation.
“One would not want to pre-empt the outcome of that investigation in any way,” he said.
The city council elected last week not to suspend transport commissioner Melissa Whitehead, one of the officials implicated in the allegations of maladministration made by Kesson.
Kesson and city manager Achmat Ebrahim, who had also been asked to give reasons why they should not be suspended pending the outcome of the probe, were also spared.
– African News Agency (ANA),
