Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats (ID) go into their party congress this weekend still trading punches with their former Western Cape leader Lennit Max, but increasingly confident that they can see off his court challenge without major damage.
Max, a former police commissioner in the province, has taken the party to court over the suspension of his membership and disciplinary action which he says was brought to prevent him from investigating allegations that De Lille had accepted a R300 000 cash donation from alleged gang boss Quinton Marinus on the eve of the April 2004 elections.
The allegations have since been denied in sworn statements by De Lille and most of the other players in the saga, with the exception of Marinus.
In his founding affidavit, Max maintains that he was compelled to resign as Western Cape leader of the party by De Lille and ID general secretary Avril Harding in retaliation for demanding an investigation into his claims.
De Lille points in her sworn reply to a resignation letter handed to her by Max on November 4 as evidence that he quit voluntarily before making his claims. She told the Mail & Guardian this week that after the application was filed on January 10, Max’s lawyers sought a settlement.
”They offered to withdraw the application, and make sure the Marinus allegations were kept out of the press, if we withdrew the suspension, he got to keep his seat in the [provincial legislature] and we all went back to being friends,” she said.
Members of her legal team confirmed that this conversation had taken place, but Max’s attorney Leon van Rensburg refused to discuss it on the grounds that revealing details of a settlement offer would be unethical.
”We refused, and the next morning all the details of his allegations appeared in the Cape Times,” De Lille said, suggesting that Max had hoped to intimidate the party into taking him back.
De Lille conceded borrowing taxis from Marinus on Election Day. However, with a series of affidavits confirming that she had been on the same erf as Marinus’ shebeen to pick up CD copies of the party jingle from a hip hop producer who works from premises behind the erf, and documentation which she says shows that Max misspent party funds, De Lille is now confident that the ID will prevail in the coming court battle.
Asked how the party leadership had had such difficulties with individuals brought on board ahead of the elections, she said: ”When you open a new bar, all the old drunks thrown out of the old bars come in, and you donÅ¡t know who they are.”