Bruising power play led to De Lille exit
The factional power play was linked to a succession race in the DA for the premiership of the province in 2019 and a broader fight between DA loyalists and remnants of the former Independent Democrats
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille’s surprise resignation as DA Western Cape leader on Sunday came after a bruising fight with party heavyweights including Western Cape Premier Helen Zille in which De Lille was forced to back down on a key appointment to her mayoral executive committee. The factional power play was linked to a succession race in the DA for the premiership of the province in 2019 and a broader fight between DA loyalists and remnants of the former Independent Democrats (ID), after completing their ground-breaking merger in 2010 in what was then seen as a coup for Zille, who had gained a high-profile leader in De Lille. The ID was dissolved and swallowed up by the DA in 2014. But De Lille on Monday dismissed succession talk and speculation that she was bruised after the alleged "micro-management" by "Wale Street [the premier’s office]". Instead, she said those peddling such stories were opposed to her pro-poor and transformative agenda that she has introduced in the cit...
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