Cape Town - GOOD party leader Patricia de Lille and the Democratic Alliance (DA) both claimed victory on Friday as the high court in Cape Town ruled that the Electoral Court was a more appropriate forum to hear a dispute between the two parties.
Judge Robert Martin adjourned "without establishing a date" for an application by De Lille to have the DA interdicted from instructing tele-canvassers (through providing them with a script) to tell potential voters De Lille was fired as Cape Town mayor.
"...it is my finding that the most appropriate forum to hear both legs of this dispute is not this court because even if this court were to entertain the first leg by way of an appeal...it might create a situation where there are two opposing rulings on this matter at the end of the day when the electoral court makes the ruling on the matter of the review that is pending before it and that is completely unacceptable within our jurisprudence...," ruled Martin.
De Lille claimed this was a victory in that the court affirmed that an Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) order that the DA apologise to her and desist from using the script just weeks before South Africans go the polls on May 8 still stands.
"This court found this morning that the IEC is a chapter nine institution and therefore their finding stands," she said.
The DA, however, had a different interpretation of Friday's high court ruling and in a statement the party claims its position had been vindicated.
"De Lille has tried three times to bring an urgent motion before the High Court and all three attempts have failed," said Mike Moriarty, the DA's principal representative of the party liaison committee on the IEC.
The DA and De Lille, the mayor it put forward to lead the City of Cape Town in two municipal elections, have been engaged in a bitter and very public battle for more than a year.
De Lille resigned last year following several legal battles and as yet untested allegations from the DA she was involved in wrongdoing, and in December started her own political party.