De Lille ‘playing the victim card’, says Tony Leon

Former DA leader Tony Leon has accused Patricia de Lille of “playing the victim card” in her handling of her court case against the party.

Leon told eNCA’s Dan Moyane that De Lille was a “master of public relations”, implying she had been using the perception that she has been treated badly by the DA as a way to gain political capital.

Admitting the saga had taken a political toll on the party, Leon noted: “Any political division that’s played out in public like this is a challenge for a political party like the DA, which prides itself on good governance.”

He does not seem to think that the fallout will last, though.

“You’ve got to take a longer view in politics, and while it might be said that this is an issue of morality, people in the Western Cape still enjoy better government and more corruption-free services than any other area of South Africa.”

READ MORE: Tony Leon was kind of a nobody in 1994

Judgment at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town was handed down on Wednesday, finding that there was noncompliance with its own constitution in the Democratic Alliance’s handling of the disciplinary process that culminated in the removal of De Lille as a member of the DA and then as mayor of Cape Town.

The party’s removal of De Lille was declared unlawful, and was set aside with costs.

The DA’s refusal to give De Lille the opportunity to give evidence in mitigation was said to be an example of noncompliance in the matter by judge Andre le Grange.

The party was meant to give De Lille a chance to make representations, “which in our view it did not do”.

The judge said the process taken by the DA’s Federal Legal Council (FLC), which handles internal matters, was legally incorrect.

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