Patricia de Lille will continue her lifelong fight for a just, fair and caring society by forming an as yet unnamed political party, the former mayor of Cape Town announced on Sunday.
Bringing speculation about her future ever since she resigned as mayor and DA member on October 31 on end, she said the new party’s name and policy positions will be announced in two weeks, while it will be officially launched in January next year before it contests the elections in every province.
“I’ve spent my entire life fighting for a society that is just, fair and caring and will not rest until that is achieved,” she said.
“Today, I’m inviting all South Africans who are in search of something new that will disrupt our current political system to join me.
I am making a call for you to do something good. To join me in doing something good for our country.
“When good people do nothing, evil prospers,” she said.
De Lille’s resignation as mayor was the culmination of 18 months of acrimony between her and the DA – that party she joined when it merged with the ID, which she founded and led, in 2010. She was accused of turning a blind eye to corruption and poor management, and she said a “cabal” went after her when she started to address apartheid’s spatial planning.
De Lille spent some time in her speech on Sunday in the Sun Square Hotel in the Cape Town city bowl speaking about what she called her “abusive relationship” with the DA, but insists she is not bitter. She did however, say if anybody has a go at her, she will have a go at them too.
“It became clear that the project Helen Zille [former DA leader, current Western Cape leader] and I agreed on in 2010, to create a viable alternative to the ANC, was no longer underpinned by the values I believed in and on which the DA campaigned,” she said.
Source: eNCA
