De Lille to Maimane: I’m glad to see you go

Among the reactions to Mmusi Maimane stepping down as the leader of the DA on Wednesday was former senior DA member and longtime mayor of Cape Town Patrica de Lille, who acrimoniously quit the party in 2018 to start her own party, GOOD.

She didn’t waste the opportunity to turn the knife on her former party boss, saying she had tried to warn him that he would suffer a similarly cruel fate in the official opposition.

De Lille’s party won two seats in the National Assembly in the May elections and she subsequently accepted a position in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s parliament as the minister of public works and infrastructure.

She told eNCA earlier this month that she once told Maimane, when she was opposing efforts to oust her from the DA: “You are working with them to get me out. You are the spokesperson of this cabal. One day the cabal will turn on you.”

In a statement that she read out on SABC News, she said: “When I resigned from the DA on my own terms a year ago on 31 October 2018, it was after learning bitter lessons that the party’s stated policies were window-dressing not matched by its practices in government.

“I hate to say I told you so but I am going to say it anyway. I am not claiming to be a sangoma but I warned Mmusi Maimane that if he didn’t stand on principle his party’s laptop boys would swallow him up and spit him out.

“He saw the blue train coming but didn’t know how to get out of the way. The problem for Mmusi and his handlers in the DA is that none of them have a clue about principled leadership.

“The DA is well on its way on the path of destruction, and it’s best we don’t disturb them. South Africans who care about all our people must continue to come together for common GOOD.

“To Mmusi I say: GOODbye, Im glad to see you go and hope you have a GOOD time.”

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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