De Lille judgment opens can of worms for DA

The desperate attempts by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to see the back of Patricia De Lille could cost them dearly after their high court defeat against the Cape Town mayor last week during which the court ruled that its federal legal commission (FLC) may itself not be above board.

The party could face a review of several decisions made by its disciplinary body over the past three years, according to its federal executive.

This as the DA is receiving legal advice on whether it could appeal a Western Cape High Court judgment that found it violated its own constitution in ceasing the party membership of De Lille, owing to, among other things, the composition of its FLC.

Over the past three years, this body has made disciplinary decisions about key members such as Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and MP Dianne Kohler Barnard.

According to the judgment, not only was the initial FLC “selection panel” not properly constituted, the entire FLC itself appeared not to have been properly constituted in that the 11 members of the selection panel were not considered to be part of it, and never served on it.

“This must mean that the FLC panel, which was appointed to make a determination in respect of the alleged cessation of De Lille’s membership, was also improperly constituted, and this much too was in effect conceded by the DA’s counsel when pressed upon the point,” said DA federal executive chairperson James Selfe.

He said while the judgment could affect past decisions, the party’s coming federal congress meeting would, in any case, result in a reconstitution of the FLC.

“What we have to do is to get independent legal opinion on the enforceability of this judgment, and that will obviously affect decisions made by the FLC over the past three years.

“It won’t be an issue before that because it was not constituted in the way it is now. Going forward it isn’t a problem because the FLC will be reconstituted when we have our next federal congress meeting in July.

“We will then decide whether we should appeal this judgment, which we respectfully disagree with in its interpretation of our constitution.”

The public spat between the party and its estranged mayor could see a less bitter end, however, as City Press reported yesterday that Zille was mediating talks between De Lille and Maimane on a possible out-of-court agreement on the mayor’s position in the party.

De Lille had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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