Outgoing City of Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille and a few other Councillors will be the subject of a criminal investigation. They were implicated in two reports by law firm Bowman Gillfillan into alleged corruption and maladministration in the city.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader in the Cape Metro, Grant Twigg, has confirmed that both independent reports have been adopted by council at a closed meeting on Thursday night.
They recommend disciplinary action, including criminal investigations. The reports were commissioned to look into maladministration in the city and the role that De Lille may have played in a cover up linked to a MyCiti bus tender.
“Council has now accepted the recommendations that lead to the report. It is two reports as you would know. It has now been referred to the speaker. There are two processes that now need to be followed. The one is on the investigations of the officials. It goes to the city manager and for the councillors involved, it goes to the speaker to investigate. From the DA caucus side we are very happy that we have come to this position where the information investigated by Bowman’s can now go to disciplinary process,” says DA Metro Leader in the City of Cape Town, Grant Twigg.
The closed meeting followed a day filled with tension and a lot of unexpected turns in council chambers.
De Lille delivered a heated farewell speech lashing out at those who want to tarnish her name by linking her to corrupt practices. Five DA Councillors resigned in public to show their support for De Lille.
The leader of the DA in the province believes that the resignations were a planned move. “The plans to leave the party for some people has been on the cards for some time and we will be obviously issuing a statement in due course to tell you exactly what is happening here,” says DA Leader in the Western Cape, Bonginkosi Madikizela .
The DA has reacted to murmurs in the media that De Lille may not resign as expected at the end of the month. The party reached an agreement with her in this regard two months ago.
“The agreement will then cease to function and then we would have to look into other avenues within the party’s constitution on how to deal with the matter but as things stand now we would like to believe that she will stick by the agreement,” says DA Fedex Deputy Chairperson, Thomas Walters.
The DA says it has begun the process to replace the five Councillors who resigned.
Click below for more on the story:
