The Democratic Alliance (DA) says reports that the party has charged Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, over her attendance of an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) event in the Free State on Wednesday are untrue.
De Lille attended a memorial service of struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in Brandfort, raising many eyebrows. She also addressed the gathering.
De Lille says Madikizela-Mandela was her special friend.
Earlier, the DA says it is seeking an explanation from City of Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille on her decision to attend a memorial service for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, hosted by the EFF in Brandfort, Free State. The party says De Lille had not informed the DA leadership of her intention to attend and deliver an address at the event.
The DA says she flouted party protocol by not informing them about her attending the event. DA Chairperson of the Federal Council, James Selfe, says de Lille has violated DA protocol by attending the event without the party’s knowledge.
“There is protocol that we observe in the DA that we are going to talk to a rally of another political organisation. We do inform the leadership so that everybody knows about it and everybody understands the context of it. I don’t think there will be any action taken either than I would like to get some sort of explanation for why she didn’t take the call.”
A political analyst from the University of the Western Cape, Professor Keith Gottschalk says Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille must have resigned herself to being sacked by the DA. Gottschalk says de Lille’s action was rather unusual.
“Normally when other political parties have a joint meeting, what they will do is to set up some sort of joint committee. And for a leader of a political party to appear under the platform of another one, an occasion is quite unusual and might create some twitchiness among some of the DA whips.”
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