Patricia de Lille gets more time as Cape Town mayor

Court asks more time to deliberate de Lille suspension by the Democratic Alliance.

Patricia de Lille has returned to work as mayor of Cape Town after the high court of the Western Cape decided that her dismissal from office by her party, the Democratic Alliance, (DA), should be temporarily suspended in order to give the court more time to examine her case. There will be a further court hearing on 25 May.

De Lille was dismissed from office by her party at the beginning of May on the grounds that she had said in a media interview that she was going to leave the DA. The party has also been accusing her of cronyism and mismanagement. However the struggle within the party should also be seen in the context of South Africa's coming general elections in 2019 and the resurgence of the African National Congress (ANC) under the country's new president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Cape Town's deputy mayor, Ian Neilson, who immediately proclaimed himself mayor in place of de Lille, has now had to hold off from appointing a new executive council.