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Patricia de Lille

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The Honourable
Patricia de Lille
MP
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 May 2019
DeputyNoxolo Kiviet
Preceded byPosition established
Leader of Good
Incumbent
Assumed office
2 December 2018
Preceded byParty founded
Member of the National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office
22 May 2019
In office
10 May 1994 – 10 September 2010
Mayor of Cape Town
In office
1 June 2011 – 31 October 2018
Membership suspended: 8 May 2018 – 15 May 2018
DeputyIan Neilson
Preceded byDan Plato
Succeeded byIan Neilson (Acting)
Dan Plato
Western Cape Provincial Minister of Social Development
In office
22 September 2010 – 31 May 2011
PremierHelen Zille
Preceded byIvan Meyer
Succeeded byAlbert Fritz
Leader of the Independent Democrats
In office
21 June 2003 – 21 May 2014
Preceded byParty founded
Succeeded byParty merged into
Democratic Alliance
Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament
In office
22 September 2010 – 31 May 2011
ConstituencyCity of Cape Town
Provincial Leader of the Western Cape Democratic Alliance
In office
18 April 2015 – 1 February 2017
DeputyBonginkosi Madikizela
Preceded byIvan Meyer
Succeeded byBonginkosi Madikizela
Personal details
Born
Patricia Lindt

(1951-02-17) 17 February 1951 (age 73)
Beaufort West, Cape Province, Union of South Africa
NationalitySouth African citizenship
Political partyGood (2018–present)
Other political
affiliations		Democratic Alliance (2010–2018)
Independent Democrats (2003–2014)
Pan Africanist Congress (1987–2003)
SpouseEdwin de Lille (m. 1972)
Children2
ProfessionLaboratory technician
Trade unionist
Politician
CabinetMinister of Public Works and Infrastructure

Patricia de Lille (née Lindt; born 17 February 1951) is a South African politician who is the current Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure and leader of the political party Good. She was previously Mayor of Cape Town from 2011 to 2018, and Western Cape Provincial Minister of Social Development from 2010 to 2011. She founded and led the Independent Democrats (ID), a political party which she formed in 2003 during a floor-crossing window, after she broke away from the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). In August 2010, the ID merged with the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's official opposition,[1] and the party was officially dissolved in 2014. From 2015 to 2017, she was Provincial Leader of the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape.

De Lille was selected as the DA's mayoral candidate in Cape Town, defeating incumbent Dan Plato, ahead of the 2011 local government elections, where she was elected mayor. She was re-elected to a second term as mayor in the 2016 local government elections.[2]

De Lille was voted 22nd in the Top 100 Great South Africans, and is noted for her role in investigations into the country's controversial Arms Deal.[3]

On 8 May 2018, the DA's Federal Executive ceased De Lille's party membership, thereby removing her as mayor of the DA governed city.[4][5] The Western Cape High Court temporarily suspended her removal.[6] On 5 August 2018, De Lille announced her intention to resign as Mayor of Cape Town. She resigned as mayor and terminated her DA party membership on 31 October 2018.

Consequently, she formed Good in December 2018, and was announced as the party's Western Cape Premier candidate in February 2019.[7][8] She was elected to Parliament in May 2019 and took office as a Member on 22 May 2019. On 29 May 2019, De Lille was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa as Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure.

Background

De Lille at the Nelson Mandela memorial concert at the Cape Town Stadium in 2013

De Lille was born in 1951 in Beaufort West, and attended Bastiaanse Hoërskool.[9] In 1974 she became a laboratory technician at a factory. She remained involved with the same company until 1990.[9] During this time, she became involved in the South African Chemical Workers Union, starting off as a shop steward and then becoming regional secretary, before being elected as a National Executive Member in 1983.[9] In 1988, she was elected as National Vice-President of The National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), the highest position for a woman in the trade union movement at that time.[9]

Political career

In 1989, De Lille was elected onto the National Executive Committee of the Pan Africanist Movement (PAM). She led a delegation in the constitutional negotiations that preceded South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, and following her election as a Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) MP,[10] she was appointed as Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport from 1994 to 1999. She also served on various portfolio Committees including Health, Minerals and Energy, Trade and Industry, Communications, the Rules Committee and the Code of Ethics.[9]

Later, she made use of parliamentary privilege to be a whistle-blower on the South African Arms Deal.

In 2003, De Lille made use of a floor crossing window to break with the PAC, and form her own party, the Independent Democrats.[10]

Issues

Arms Deal

De Lille led the call for an investigation into alleged corruption in South Africa's purchase of weapons costing £4bn from British and other European manufacturers (that cost has soared on the basis of foreign currency collapses to more than its original cost although the Rand £ and Rand $ exchange rates have now reduced the costs to almost the same level as the original cost.). The government rejected De Lille's calls for an independent inquiry to be led by Judge Willem Heath. De Lille said she was accused of being unpatriotic and embarrassing the country as a consequence of her efforts to investigate the Arms Deal."[11]

On 5 April 2009, the Independent Democrats confirmed De Lille's attendance at the announcement of the National Prosecuting Authority the following day regarding its decision either to drop or to maintain its case against ANC President Jacob Zuma, who had been implicated in the Arms Deal. In an op-ed for The Sunday Times, De Lille predicted that the charges would be dropped:

Am I angry? Of course I am angry. I am angry because the majority of our people are not seeing the warning signs that are coming from the ANC, a liberation party that has no respect for the Constitution and the rule of law and is prepared to erode both just so that one man can become the leader of our country.

By letting these ANC crooks off the hook we are sending entirely the wrong message to our people. Government is saying that there is a way out for those who break the law.[12]

On the morning of the NPA's much-awaited announcement, De Lille was turned away from proceedings, being told that, as a member of the public, she would have to find a television set.[13] Leader of the Democratic Alliance Helen Zille was met with the same fate.[14]

Awards and recognition

De Lille was awarded the Freedom of the City of Birmingham, Alabama, and in 2004 was awarded the honour of being one of the Top 5 Women in Government and Government Agencies.[15] She was also awarded the 2004 Old Mutual South African Leadership Award in the Category of Woman Leadership.[16]

De Lille was voted 22nd in the Top 100 Great South Africans, and is noted for her role in investigations into the country's controversial Arms Deal.[3]

In July 2006 she was the first woman to be recognised as Honorary Colonel of 84 Signal Unit in the South African National Defence Force.[17] In August 2006 she received the City Press and Rapport Newspaper award as one of top 10 women in South Africa.[18]

A Markinor survey conducted in 2004 found that De Lille was South Africa's favourite politician after Thabo Mbeki.[19]

Joining the DA

De Lille with DA Leader Helen Zille, 2010.

On 13 August 2010, after meetings with both the DA and ID executive, it was decided that the ID would indeed merge with the DA. On 15 August 2010, De Lille and DA Leader Helen Zille announced to the public that the ID would join the DA.[20]

Controversies

During the 2004 general election, disgruntled former members of the Independent Democrats accused her of running the party in a "undemocratic" manner – in direct contrast with the image of transparency and accountability that she grounded her party on. De Lille told reporters that the dissenters had been fired from the party for fraud and corruption.[21]

As Mayor of Cape Town, De Lille has been perceived to have had a conflict of interest regarding the private sector developments by friends of hers in Clifton.[22] As mayor, De Lille was accused by businessman Anthony Faul of demanding an R5 million bribe so as to secure a procurement contract to supply fire extinguishers in 2013.[23]

Party infighting and resignation as Mayor of Cape Town

In September 2017, De Lille controversially ordered that the City of Cape Town's special investigations unit be closed against the wishes of the city's committee member for safety, security and social services Jean-Pierre Smith.[24][25] The closure of the investigative unit led to allegations that de Lille improperly benefited from security upgrades at public expense to her home. The security upgrades allegations were investigated by the auditor-general and dismissed.[26]

Following the closure of the unit and a breakdown in the working relationship between De Lille and Smith, the Democratic Alliance charged De Lille with misconduct amid allegations against her of intimidation, criminality and misconduct.[25]

On 15 February 2018, she survived a vote of no confidence by one vote (110 no votes, 109 yes votes and 3 abstentions).[27] Following the no confidence vote, an internal vote within the DA caucus governing the City of Cape Town occurred on 25 April 2018. A majority of the DA councillors voted for the removal of De Lille as mayor.[28]

On 8 May 2018, the DA's Federal Executive terminated De Lille's membership. Federal executive chairperson James Selfe said De Lille's membership was terminated after an interview De Lille did with Radio 702 radio host Eusebius McKaiser, where she said that she would resign once she had cleared her name. Her expulsion from the Democratic Alliance meant that she could no longer remain as mayor of Cape Town.[4] The Western Cape High Court temporarily suspended her removal,[6] and heard arguments about her removal on 4–5 June 2018.[29] The Cape Town City Council voted on 31 May 2018 to strip De Lille of her executive powers.[30] On 27 June 2018, the Western Cape High Court voted unanimously to reinstate De Lille's party membership, finding that the DA had failed to follow its own constitution when it invoked its cessation clause against De Lille. In July 2018, a vote of no confidence was scheduled, but was later withdrawn.[31]

On 5 August 2018, the Democratic Alliance National Leader, Mmusi Maimane, announced at a joint news conference that the party had reached a "mutual agreement" with De Lille. The agreement being that De Lille would resign as Mayor of Cape Town and that the party would withdraw all internal charges against her. She would also remain a member of the Democratic Alliance. The announcement of her resignation came a day before the party's disciplinary proceedings would have started.

The African National Congress Cape Town Caucus described the agreement as "illicit" and stated that the resignation "opens a backdoor for a different mayor other than the one people voted for."[32][33][34]

In September 2018, the Democratic Alliance announced that Dan Plato would succeed De Lille. She left office on 31 October 2018. She also resigned as a member of the Democratic Alliance.

Leader of Good and national government

When De Lille resigned as Mayor of Cape Town, she mentioned that she would take two weeks off of public life, while she writes her book and evaluates her choices. It was suspected de Lille would either revive her old political party, the Independent Democrats, or either join the African National Congress or the Economic Freedom Fighters.

On 18 November 2018, De Lille launched the "For Good" political movement and website. She said at the event that she would form a new political party.[35][36][37]

On 2 December 2018, De Lille announced the formation of a new political party named, Good. Other disgruntled former Democratic Alliance members, such as Brett Herron and Shaun August, were present at the event. She also said that the political party is registered with the IEC and would contest the 2019 general election.[38][7]

De Lille was announced as the Good Party's Western Cape Premier candidate on 10 February 2019.[39] On 16 February 2019, she officially launched the "Aunty Pat for Premier Campaign" in Wesbank near Delft outside Cape Town.[40]

Following the May 2019 general elections, De Lille was sworn in as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa, and was appointed Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

References

  1. ^ Adams, Nathan (1 June 2011). "De Lille receives Cape Town mayoral chain". Eyewitness News. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  2. ^ Brendan Boyle (20 May 2011). "Patricia de Lille next mayor of Cape Town". Times LIVE.
  3. ^ a b "The 10 Greatest South Africans of all time". www.bizcommunity.com. 27 September 2004. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Public reacts to #DeLille ousting". iol.com. Cape Argus. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  5. ^ https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-did-not-follow-proper-procedure-when-removing-delille-court-told-14898628
  6. ^ a b Herman, Paul (15 May 2018). "Gloves off as DA declares De Lille's return 'ceremonial'". News24.
  7. ^ a b https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/de-lille-is-back-for-good-20181202
  8. ^ De Lille is Good premier candidate in fight for Western Cape. Retrieved on 9 May 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Patricia de Lille".
  10. ^ a b "De Lille left PAC to 'find space for herself' | IOL News". Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  11. ^ McGreal, Chris (16 February 2001). "Opposition loner is thorn in flesh of South African government". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
  12. ^ Otter 2009.
  13. ^ "De Lille barred from NPA headquarters". IOL. 6 April 2009. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  14. ^ "Access denied to Zille", IOL, 6 April 2009.
  15. ^ "De Lille, Patricia – The O'Malley Archives". www.nelsonmandela.org. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  16. ^ "Leadership is key, says Old Mutual". Old Mutual. 9 February 2004. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  17. ^ "Patricia de Lille becomes Honorary Colonel" (PDF). South African Soldier. September 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016.
  18. ^ "The 10th annual Rapport/City Press Prestige Awards 2006". City Press. 8 August 2006. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010.
  19. ^ "In Mbeki we trust". IOL. 14 April 2004. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  20. ^ DA, ID to merge, News24, 15 August 2010. Retrieved on 19 May 2019.
  21. ^ "News24 | South Africa's leading source of breaking news, opinion and insight". News24. Archived from the original on 7 April 2005. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  22. ^ McKune, Craig. "De Lille and the contentious Clifton Scenic Reserve megaproject". The M&G Online. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  23. ^ Bendile, Dineo (8 February 2018). "Shack fires bring more legal woes for De Lille". The M&G Online. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  24. ^ Dolley, Caryn (29 September 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Murder, irregularity claims surface after De Lille 'shuts down' City of Cape Town investigative unit". News24. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  25. ^ a b Dolley, Caryn (16 January 2018). "De Lille's controversial Cape Town investigating unit 'shut down' could be reversed". The M&G Online. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  26. ^ "Upgrades To De Lille's Home Were Above Board". HuffPost South Africa. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  27. ^ Jenni Evans and Tammy Petersen (15 February 2018). "De Lille survives motion of no confidence". News24. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  28. ^ NICO GOUS & ARON HYMAN (25 April 2018). "DA passes vote of no confidence in De Lille". Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  29. ^ Etheridge, Jenna; Herman, Paul (23 May 2018). "De Lille's court hearing postponed 'because judges need more time to prepare'". News24.
  30. ^ "De Lille stripped of executive powers in the City of Cape Town". The South African. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  31. ^ "De Lille no-confidence vote scrapped after late-night DA deal". Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  32. ^ "De Lille resignation: Charges dropped. What now?". News24. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  33. ^ "Patricia de Lille to step down as mayor of Cape Town". Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  34. ^ Merten, Marianne. "De Lille out – Mutual agreement struck as a political solution to damaging party infighting". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  35. ^ Gerber, Jan. WATCH: Politics unusual as Patricia de Lille forms new party, News24, 18 November 2018.
  36. ^ Patricia de Lille to launch new ‘party of action’ ahead of elections, TimesLIVE, 18 November 2018.
  37. ^ It's time for a new political order – Patricia de Lille, IOL, 18 November 2018.
  38. ^ Patricia de Lille announces name of new party, News24, 2 December 2018.
  39. ^ De Lille revealed as Western Cape premier candidate for GOOD. Retrieved on 9 May 2019.
  40. ^ GOOD Party launches "Aunty Pat for Premier Campaign", SABC News, 16 February 2019.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Cape Town
2011–2018 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Provincial Minister of Social Development (Western Cape)
2010–2011 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
New political party Leader of the Good
2018–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Provincial Leader of the Western Cape Democratic Alliance
2015–2017 		Succeeded by
New political party Leader of the Independent Democrats
2003–2014 		Succeeded by
Position Abolished
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