Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape Bonginkosi Madikizela welcomed the outcome of the vote of no confidence against the Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, who on Thursday narrowly survived the motion brought by her own party the DA.

"It is important to also note that the vast majority of DA councillors expressed their lack of confidence in the Mayor and that she has survived in large part due to the support of the ANC and the other smaller opposition parties. Seventy-five percent of the DA caucus voted in favour of the motion," Madikizela said.

He said this means that De Lille is governing without a party mandate and that this is a serious undermining of the DA.

Madikizela, in a statement, said: "This then brings into serious question whether it can be said that the Mayor has the mandate of the electorate which voted for the DA. The Federal Legal Commission’s (FLC) investigation against the Mayor is ongoing and its findings will be communicated in due course."

Madikizela further said: "It is important that the City of Cape Town leadership now gets back to the business of dealing with this unprecedented drought crisis and delivering services to the people of this city."

De Lille, in a statement later, expressed her relief and said it took an amazing amount of bravery from the DA councillors to support her.

"I also thank the opposition parties for seeing beyond party lines and voting on a matter of principle. To the many people of Cape Town and the various communities who have supported me with their kind words and well wishes, my heartfelt thanks goes to each and every single person," De Lille said.

De Lille said all the "untested allegations" against her was a smear campaign against her for the past six months and despite continuous efforts to get her out of office, the vote proved that the truth will always prevail.

"I remain open to subjecting myself to due process and to exercise my right to give my side of the story. In terms of the DA in the City, we have to find a way of uniting the DA caucus and unite the city so we can continue to our task to deliver services to the people of Cape Town," said De Lille.

De Lille survived the motion of no confidence by a single vote. The motion was defeated by 110 votes to 109, with three abstentions.

This result came after De Lille headed to the Western Cape High Court this week for an urgent application seeking to have the vote of no confidence in her conducted by secret ballot.

The opposition African National Congress (ANC) rejoiced in the chamber as the news of De Lille's narrow victory emerged.

Afterwards, De Lille tweeted: "Thank you to the councillors for their support. You showed your courage and conviction. Let’s get back to our work!"

De Lille earlier walked out of the council sitting when its speaker Dirk Smit refused to allow the secret ballot.

De Lille's legal team argued on Wednesday that a secret ballot was the only way to protect councillors from DA bosses who they feared might intimidate or even fire those who voted against the motion.

The court had left the final decision in the hands of the Speaker but despite Smit ruling that the vote not be held in secret, De Lille managed to survive the motion.

The grounds of the no-confidence motion were based on the allegations of maladministration and corruption against De Lille.