CAPE TOWN, May (ANA) - Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has denied that she has formally served any court papers on the Democratic Alliance with regard to the DA's recently adopted "recall clause".
Responding on Saturday afternoon to a statement earlier in the day by DA federal council deputy chairwoman Natasha Mazzone, that the DA federal executive (FedEx) had suspended its discussions on De Lille's position pending legal advice, De Lille said she had been given until Wednesday afternoon, May 2, to make representations to the FedEx as to why she should not resign as Cape Town mayor following a vote of no confidence in her by the DA caucus.
"I made those representations which were to be considered by the FedEx as part of their two-day meeting which concluded today [Saturday]," she said.
"[Mazzone] has announced that the FedEx did not make a decision because during the course of their discussions I served legal papers on the DA which advised that I intended to approach the courts. This apparently led to the FedEx deferring their decision. I wish to make it clear that I have not formally served any court papers on the party with regards to the recall clause.
"My legal team, as a matter of courtesy, sent the party’s attorneys a copy of my draft papers which we would only have formally issued and served had the recall clause been invoked. The courtesy was extended to the party’s legal team since the clause, if invoked, would have required me to resign within 48 hours," De Lille said.
"Any application made to the court would thus have to be done on an urgent basis and we wanted the party to be in a position to prepare to respond if necessary. I remain concerned by the statements made by Ms Mazzone, in particular that the caucus relied on me allegedly breaching the code of conduct for councillors and the party’s constitution, bringing the party into disrepute, and breaching my suspension conditions as the basis for the vote of no confidence.
"I have never been found guilty, following any due process, of any of those allegations. I would expect a senior leader of the party to know that. Those allegations are unspecified and untested. In fact, my consistent demand is for all the allegations against me to be tested following an open, transparent, and fair process that is consistent with the values of the party. I am disputing all of those allegations and I want the public, who elected me, to hear the evidence against me," De Lille said.
Earlier on Saturday, Mazzone said the FedEx - the party's highest decision-making body outside of federal congress - had considered the "Patricia de Lille case following the City of Cape Town caucus decision to move a motion of no confidence in Ms De Lille".
"They had advanced various reasons for why over 70 percent of the caucus have lost confidence in Ms De Lille as mayor. These reasons included the fact that she had repeatedly breached the code of conduct for councillors as well as the constitution of the DA, had brought the DA into disrepute, and breached the conditions of her suspension," Mazzone said.
However, during the course of the FedEx deliberations, "we received legal papers from Ms De Lille advising that she intends approaching the courts. As a result we have suspended discussions pending legal advice. The Fedex will resume discussions early next week once the legal advice is at hand", Mazzone said.
- African News Agency (ANA)
