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The DA is stunned by Patricia de Lille’s desperate attempts to make the people of Cape Town pay for her personal legal fees.

We applaud the Speaker’s decision to decline her request because her legal battle is about her own private interests, not the interests of the residents of Cape Town. The City decision had nothing to do with the DA, and the DA learned of the decision only after the Speaker made it.

No public representative in Cape Town has ever had their legal fees paid by the City, and in her personal fight Patricia de Lille should certainly not be the first.

We liken this battle to the ongoing Jacob Zuma battle to have his private legal fees paid by the South African public. It is wrong, and unjustified for public servants to do wrong, and in the face of enormous evidence against them, to dip into public coffers to pay their legal fees. And it is wrong for public servants to draw out their cases, to play for time, to delay – and rack up legal costs – only to expect the residents to pay for this.

If Patricia de Lille really thought she had a legal case in the public interest, she could have approached the State Attorney to handle her case. But she did not use the State Attorney, because her case is a personal crusade to attack the DA and muddy the waters in the face of overwhelming evidence and findings against her.

Issued by DA