The party’s Federal Executive has given the FLC until mid-March to conclude the hearings into de Lille’s conduct.
A date has yet to be set for Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille to state her case in a disciplinary hearing before the Democratic Alliance’s Federal Legal Commission (FLC), but the outcome of the hearings could influence De Lille’s future in office.
DA Federal Executive chairperson James Selfe said that the FLC is currently negotiating dates with De Lille’s legal team on when the disciplinary hearings can proceed. De Lille is busy attending to mayoral duties, he said, so the FLC is “struggling to find mutually convenient dates”.
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The disciplinary hearings will determine if De Lille is guilty or innocent of corruption charges which members of the party have levelled against her. The charges allege De Lille tried to bury dodgy business deals and treated people abusively.
Selfe admitted that, according to his knowledge, de Lille had recently defeated a motion of no confidence tabled against her at the City council, because members of the DA said the party had failed to prove she is guilty.
“There’s a number of people who voted for her – in other words against the motion of no confidence – who said that the reason that they did so was because there had been no case proven against her and they might very well have voted the other way had there been a guilty finding,” he said.
If found guilty, de Lille could be removed from office “if her [party] membership was terminated”, Selfe said. The Municipal Structures Act, however, says a mayor can only be removed by members of the council.
De Lille’s office indicated that the mayor will respond on Wednesday to questions sent by the Mail & Guardian.
Last week, she defeated a motion of no confidence tabled against her by one vote. There were 107 DA councillors who voted against De Lille and around 39 who voted in her favour. She strongly relied on opposition parties, particularly the ANC’s 58 votes, to secure her position in office.
A guilty finding from the FLC could influence an outcome where she may be ousted if another motion of no confidence is tabled against her after the hearings conclude.
Selfe said that the ongoing allegations that have fractured the DA caucus in Cape Town has “overburdened” the FLC. The FLC is also currently looking into Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s recent tweets on the virtues of colonialism for developing piped water, but it may take some time to make a decision on Zille.
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