As infighting continued to plague the Independent Democrats, a renewed call for a postponement of the party’s Western Cape congress was made on Wednesday.
Senior office bearers, including chairpersons of nine ID branches in Cape Town’s metropolis, have signed a statement calling for the postponement due to the ”chaotic planning and absence of a fair process”.
In December, the provincial congress was postponed to this coming Saturday because of a lack of proper communication to branches, particularly in the Boland region.
What is significant about Wednesday’s call is the fact that the branches are in areas where the ID has a reasonably strong presence, such as Delft, Mitchells Plain, Samora Machel, Kuils River, Eerste River, Bishop Lavis and Heideveld.
According to Grant Twigg, who described himself as the ”constitutionally elected and not nominated” chairperson of the Cape Town district executive council, branches are being treated unequally by the interim provincial leadership — ”depending on whether [ID leader] Patricia de Lille considers these branches to be loyal to her or not”.
”Branches are invited to congress only if she believes they are in her camp. She does this on the basis of suspicion, not facts, and behaves in an autocratic and unreasonable way,” reads a signed statement from the disgruntled members.
Twigg, speaking on behalf of the group, said branches in the Cape Town area were not given proper notice of Saturday’s congress, with people being invited on a random basis, and if they were likely to support De Lille’s choice of candidates for the regional leadership.
Asked if Wednesday’s statement has anything to do with a tit-for-tat battle between former regional leader Lennit Max and De Lille, which has already landed in the Cape High Court, Twigg said he is not taking any sides.
”We are siding with whoever is right. We joined the party and are prepared to build it by being anti-corruption … but with all that’s happening at the moment it is clear that De Lille thinks she is the ID and only her,” said Twigg, who himself faces a party disciplinary hearing.
Max, a former Western Cape police commissioner, was suspended from the ID after allegedly prompting a fraud investigation against De Lille, who has argued that he told police she stole R400 000 intended for the party’s coffers.
Max alleged in court papers that De Lille had received the money from suspected crime boss Quinton Marinus, a charge vehemently denied by De Lille.
Twigg said many people are going to make their voices heard, and warned if the congress is not postponed, the ID could haemorrhage members and suffer a ”mass exodus”.
In the statement, the dissident ID members accuse De Lille of controlling things in the background to get rid of her opponents and promote her cronies.
The group said this is entirely unacceptable to those who believe the ID will be able to offer a more democratic alternative to other parties.
They said the situation can only be saved if the congress is postponed and the party follows a proper process of equal treatment for all valid branches, free and fair nominations, and a chance for ordinary members to have a say in who their leaders should be.
”If she refuses to run a democratic congress, we believe Patricia de Lille should step down as leader of the Independent Democrats and allow us to elect a leader with the capacity to listen to other people,” reads the statement.
Meanwhile, a livid De Lille denounced the dissidents as ”absolute liars”.
”I take great exception that ID members send stuff to you and not to the leadership,” she said of the statement.
De Lille said the party has not received any correspondence to postpone the congress, which she vowed will go ahead — come hell or high water. — Sapa