Cape Town - Political analysts have warned there will be no outright winner in the legal battle between mayor Patricia de Lille and the DA because the breakdown in the relationship has led to "point scoring”.
A full bench in the Western Cape High Court heard arguments this week on the DA’s decision to terminate De Lille’s membership through invoking the party’s cessation clause.
De Lille’s counsel indicated that the matter could drag on until after the elections and should not have landed in court.
Analyst Ralph Mathekga agreed saying that what would constitute real justice for De Lille was to expose the inefficiencies within the DA’s systems by challenging how decisions were made and how their policies or clauses were implemented.
The DA on the other hand argued that De Lille’s exit was a “foregone conclusion”, a statement which Mathekga said indicated the DA was prepared to go on without her but might want to appeal any court decision not in its favour.
“It’s now a case of egos and cutting losses. Both parties will emerge from this bruised. In De Lille’s case, its a question who will want her as a politician after the case and the DA will suffer votes,” Mathekga said.
Another political analyst, Professor Bheki Mngomezulu, said in the event that either party was not satisfied with the court outcome, they could lodge appeals, leading to the matter not being resolved soon.
“All this is causing a disservice to the people of Cape Town and we might see a rise in service delivery protests,” Mngomezulu said.
He said when the DA decided not to pursue its internal disciplinary process to deal with the charges against De Lille, and left them hanging, it would now not be able to reinstitute them.
“But it’s clear neither party will take the court decisions lying down. It’s going to be a lenghty process”, he added.
The DA’s Natasha Mazzone said the party would await the outcome of the court and it would be remiss to comment at this stage.
After hearing arguments for two days from both parties, the court said it would pass judgment before the end of the month.
De Lille’s counsel, Dali Mpofu, made it clear she would resign once she’d cleared her name. He argued that court judges should never “do the dirty work” of a political party that was unable to lead their own caucus.
Mpofu also argued the DA federal legal commission panel that took the dismissal decision was not properly constituted.
The judges grilled the DA's counsel on why, if the party had regarded the claims against her as serious, it did not pursue the disciplinary process thus “leaving them hanging”.