Cape Town - Determined to get rid of mayor Patricia de Lille, the DA’s federal executive adopted serious findings against her without being provided with evidence of wrongdoing.
This admission came out in the DA’s court papers filed in the Western Cape High Court after De Lille applied to have the Steenhuisen report, containing allegations of misconduct against her, reviewed.
The Steenhuisen report was chaired by party chief whip John Steenhuisen.
In the same application, she is also asking that the federal executive’s decision to adopt the report be set aside.
In the DA’s answering affidavit, federal executive chair James Selfe said that the documents and evidence used by the Steenhuisen subcommittee were never seen by the federal executive, which
adopted the report.
“FedEx’s decision must stand or fall based on how it conducted itself, and what it in fact considered.
"FedEx cannot defend its decision based on documents or interviews that were not before it.
"And the applicant (De Lille) cannot attack its decision based on documents or evidence that it did not consider,” Selfe said.
Selfe added that De Lille’s request for the evidence used by the Steenhuisen subcommittee included “information which was never provided to FedEx and which it did not consider”.
Selfe, however, pointed to the fact that the party had yet to make a guilty finding on any of these accusations.
“The applicant has been suspended and asked to resign from her position as mayor because of the serious risk that the mere existence of potential wrongdoing has for the DA, not because she has finally been convicted,” he said.
De Lille’s lawyer, John Riley, said De Lille made it clear that she would challenge the substance of the Steenhuisen report.
@JasonFelix