De Lille ignores ‘ceremonial’ status, builds houses for the poor

Patricia De Lille is doing her best to disprove recent statements from the Democratic Alliance (DA), saying she will only function in a ‘ceremonial’ role since her return as Cape Town’s mayor.

In a series of tweets from their official Twitter account last week, the DA reacted to the court’s ruling that De Lille must be reinstated as Cape Town mayor pending the outcome of her court application to review the party’s decision to terminate her membership. They claimed that she “will now act in only a ceremonial role”.

This week De Lille appeared hellbent on proving the party that attempted to remove her wrong by spearheading several projects, including putting forward a proposal that would see the city’s first low-income housing project in the city centre since democracy be built in Cape Town’s tallest skyscraper, as The Citizen reported yesterday.

Today De Lille donned a hard hat and took to Morkel’s Cottage, where she got her hands dirty assisting in the construction of 547 semi-detached houses. She did not miss the opportunity to tweet about her work.

Three informal settlements will benefit from the project, according to De Lille.

De Lille updated her Twitter followers on the status of the building, and is seen in a series of photographs getting love from those present at the construction site.

De Lille’s hands-on involvement prompted praise from Twitter users, with the consensus being that she appears to be getting a lot done despite her newfound “ceremonial” role. If she’s trying to make the DA look bad, it’s working.