DA battle with De Lille drags on as party approves ‘recall clause'
The Democratic Alliance (DA) maintains the amendment to its "recall clause" is not aimed at removing Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille.
The DA's Federal Congress amended a clause which will allow it to request a public representative, which has been found to have lost the confidence of a caucus, to resign within 48 hours after making representations to the party.
The amended clause says the failure by the public representative to resign will lead to the termination of membership.
The DA says the clause will not be applied retrospectively.
But De Lille has wasted no time in releasing a statement lashing out at the resolution.
"It is no secret that there are individuals in the DA who have been trying to get rid of me at any cost for the last few months. They've shown that they would flout their own processes and ignore their own values of 'Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity' to remove me. Changing their own Federal Constitution through the newly passed "De Lille Clause" shows just how far they are willing to go to avoid their own due process."
The DA's James Selfe rubbished the statement, slamming it as nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
The amended clause says the failure by the public representative to resign will lead to the termination of membership.
The DA says the clause will not be applied retrospectively.
But De Lille has wasted no time in releasing a statement lashing out at the resolution.
"It is no secret that there are individuals in the DA who have been trying to get rid of me at any cost for the last few months. They've shown that they would flout their own processes and ignore their own values of 'Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity' to remove me. Changing their own Federal Constitution through the newly passed "De Lille Clause" shows just how far they are willing to go to avoid their own due process."
The DA's James Selfe rubbished the statement, slamming it as nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
"This clause has nothing to do with her (De Lille) personally. I can give you chapter and verse of a number of public representatives that have given us problems. We had a mayor who used to get drunk and disorderly. We tried to relieve him of his responsibilities as a mayor but we were unable to do so because we didn’t have any mechanisms for recall. So what we are now doing is creating a situation where it is possible to remove a mayor, speaker or premier who has lost the confidence of his/her caucus."