Cape Town - There was no harm in reinstating Patricia de Lille as Cape Town mayor, the Western Cape High Court heard on Friday.
De Lille brought an urgent application to retain her post until her legal challenge to the validity of her removal from office will be heard. She was removed from office on Tuesday after the DA federal executive confirmed the cessation of her membership of the party, effectively removing her from her post.
De Lille's legal team argued that given that friction between De Lille and members of the DA caucus in the city council has been ongoing for around one year, keeping her on would not bring any harm to the City of Cape Town or the party.
The former mayor's senior counsel, Advocate Dali Mpofu, told the court the DA was unable to get rid of De Lille by legal means, and instead passed and invoked a cessation clause during its April conference to remove her.
"Everything you are going to hear today is therefore, the conduct of the DA in the pursuance of this subterfuge...given the fact that all the proper legal avenues are closed, just to simply impose an unlawful mechanism to achieve the ends."
DA deputy federal council chairwoman Natasha Mazzone in the Western Cape High Court. Picture: Chantall Presence/ANA
Earlier, Judge Patrick Gamble said part B of De Lille's application - challenging the Constitutional validity of the cessation clause - would be heard by a full bench of the high court on May 25.
Earlier, supporters of both the DA as well as De Lille gathered in their numbers outside the court where the veteran politician is challenging her ousting from the party.
De Lille and her former political party's deputy federal council chairwoman Natasha Mazzone were both in court for the urgent application.