NATIONAL NEWS - The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced today that Patricia de Lille’s membership has been terminated because during a radio interview last week she had indicated that she intended to resign from the party.
The party’s federal chairperson said the DA constitution provided, in section 3.5.1.2, that: “A member ceases to be a member when he or she publicly declares his or her intention to resign and/or publicly declares his or her resignation from the Party.”
“Ms de Lille was invited to explain why she had not, as a matter of fact, ceased to be a member by virtue of this section when she admitted that she intended to resign. She attempted to argue that this referred to resigning as Mayor. The federal legal commission [FLC] found that the context showed very clearly that she intended to resign from the DA,” Selfe said.
The federal chair added the federal executive resolved last night to endorse the finding of the FLC that De Lille’s membership had ceased as of the date of the 702 interview – April 26.
“We have informed Ms De Lille and city manager of this fact,” Selfe said.
“The fact that she has ceased to be a member renders the other processes, the disciplinary and the operation of the accountability clause, moot. The federal executive did, however, support the motion passed by the caucus, and will apply the accountability clause should the need arise. The federal executive has therefore not at this point made any decision on the accountability aspect,” Selfe added.
