Patricia De Lille in more hot water with DA after EFF appearance

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille appears to be in more hot water with her party, the DA, after she appeared unexpectedly at an EFF-organised gathering in the Free State on Wednesday.

DA spokesperson Refiloe Ntsekhe said in interviews on Thursday that the primary issue was that she had not informed the party’s leadership that she was invited to speak at the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela memorial in Brandfort in honour of her late friend.

The DA’s federal executive chairperson, James Selfe, made a public statement that she would have to “explain herself”.

Ntsekhe said they were still trying to communicate with De Lille, and that they just needed an explanation, “not necessarily that there will be consequences in this regard”.

The DA made a decision over the weekend that they will now have the power to recall members in executive positions within 48 hours if they do something that calls their competence into question. They deny that this was to get rid of De Lille, whom they accuse of being corrupt – though they may use the clause to lay a new charge against her of bringing the party into disrepute.

De Lille has said she’s sure the change is targeted at her specifically.

There has been much speculation that she may be about to join the EFF, or even the ANC. The EFF was very welcoming of her on Wednesday.

In her address, De Lille said, among other things, that she had “learnt from Mama Winnie that politics is not for sissies”.

She said that today’s politicians were “plastic” and “there for their stomachs”.

She added that when she’d last seen Madikizela-Mandela the struggle stalwart had asked her about her troubles with the DA: “The last time I spoke to her she asked, ‘What are those boys doing to you?’ I said: “Don’t worry Mama, I have this under control,’ and I remember fondly that husky voice and her laughter.”

She reminisced over marching with Mama Winnie against Thabo Mbeki’s government to demand ARVs for South Africans.

“Winnie, I want to say hambe kahle my sister, mother of the nation, flower of the nation. Mama was tough, but she cried with us.”

She later joked that Mama Winnie might “start an ANC branch, or EFF, possibly” when she got to heaven.