It's official. Patricia de Lille and the DA's divorce papers have been filed. Reasons are cited as "irreconcilable differences". The marriage lasted less than eight years. A protracted court battle is now expected, as De Lille readies to "clear her name" and restore her honour. What the struggle veteran and career politician will do after that, is still anyone's guess. The rumour mill has been working over time ever since she was seen at the EFF's memorial event for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Given her PAC background, the EFF might not be a bad home ideologically for De Lille. But, with only one seat in the provincial legislature, the EFF doesn't have anything to offer her in the Western Cape.
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May 13, 2018
ALET JANSE VAN RENSBURG
2 min read
Is this the end of De Lille's political career?
Patricia de Lille
De Lille's other option is to join the ANC, but the party is in disarray in the province, and joining them could be a huge blow to De Lille's reputation for taking the ruling party on for its corruption. "I don’t know if she would be effective if she joined either the EFF or the ANC," says political analyst Mpumelelo Mkhabela. "She had been a member of the PAC and left to start the Independent Democrats (ID), before they merged with the DA. If she joins another party now, it might look like she's a person who has no principles, and just goes where she's enticed to. She might lose credibility. "Right now, people have sympathy with her. She's fighting for a principle in clearing her name. If she were to join another political party, she might lose that. So, I don't think she will go elsewhere before the court case is finalised and she has the moral high ground after she defeated the DA legally."
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The DA will no doubt be glad to put the entire De Lille saga behind it. But the poor way in which they handled it will hurt them in the public eye. Gareth van Onselen, head of politics and governance at the Institute of Race Relations, says the party would have made sure to poll the possible impact of losing De Lille on their support base. "After the motion of no confidence in her, the DA sent around SMSes to their supporters to explain the process and what happened. That costs a lot of money, and it's borne out of insecurity about how this will affect their support. The party is very worried about how this will play out," he says. Van Onselen doubts that it will affect their majority vote in the Western Cape, although support for the party might dip below 60%. But the saga would've cost the DA a lot of the goodwill and sentiment it had built up with its tremendous efforts to expose and bring to book former president Jacob Zuma on allegations of fraud and corruption. News24
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