The DA notes that the Speaker of the City of Cape Town, Dirk Smit, has today laid criminal charges against Patricia De Lille and Brett Herron in terms of a resolution taken by the Cape Town City Council which flowed from an independent investigation led by Bowmans Gilfillan.
A 2000 page report by the independent investigators details how Patricia de Lille’s conduct systematically broke down good governance in the City of Cape Town. She did so by actively shielding and defending officials allegedly guilty of criminal acts in relation to the BYD bus tender (where processes were fraudulently manipulated to illegally favour one bus provider) and the Volvo chassis matter (where the mayor chose to ignore and shield consequential action for irregular payment of R50 million).
Her failure to bring the matter to the attention of Council was a failure of her duties in respect of the Municipal Systems Disciplinary Regulations 5 (1) and (2), as well as Regulation 3(2) of the Financial Misconduct Regulations.
As a result, the Speaker has laid the charges in accordance to s119 of the Municipal Systems Act which records as follows:
“119(1) A councilor who attempts to influence the municipal manager or any other staff member or an agent of a municipality not to enforce an obligation in terms of this Act, any other applicable legislation or any by-law or decision of the council of the municipality, is guilty of an offences and on conviction liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years.”
Speaker Smit also laid charges against Brett Herron, the Mayoral Committee member for TDA in terms of Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
In terms of the Council resolution, only the City Manager may lay charges against Melissa Whitehead, the Commissioner for Transport and other officials for their conduct.
The DA has noted with surprise Ms De Lille’s comments that she had no agreement with the DA to resign. This is simply untrue. Not only did she make the announcement that she would resign at a briefing with the DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane in August, we have a signed resignation letter from her attached hereto.
Based on her comments, our lawyers have written to Ms De Lille’s lawyers to state that we expect her to vacate the mayoral office tomorrow as per the agreement. It is important that we restore stability to the City of Cape Town as soon as possible. As such, Mayor-Elect, Dan Plato, will be sworn in as a councillor on Thursday the 1st of November in preparation for him to be nominated as the Mayor of Cape Town.
The DA’s main priority remains the people of Cape Town. Ms De Lille’s never-ending delaying tactics are wearing thin and every day she shows more and more that she is not to be trusted and that she puts herself ahead of the people she is meant to serve.