Notwithstanding Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille’s spirited fight to reclaim her membership of the DA, her relationship with the party was irrevocably broken‚ the High Court in Cape Town heard on Tuesday. The beleaguered mayor is challenging the constitutionality of the party’s “cessation clause”‚ which the DA invoked when it terminated her membership in May. Her declaration during a Radio 702 interview with Eusebius McKaiser on April 26 appears to have been the tipping point. The contested clause says: “A member ceases to be a member when he or she … publicly declares his or her intention to resign … from the party.” De Lille has been at pains to explain that she intended to resign from her mayoral position after clearing her name‚ but not from the party. But the DA’s counsel‚ Sean Rosenberg‚ would have none of it. He told a full bench of judges it was clear at the time of the interview that relations between De Lille and the party were strained. It had “irrevocably broken down”, ...
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