Axed Western Cape Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz has been given 24 hours to provide the Democratic Alliance (DA) with reasons why he should not be suspended from party activities.

In a short statement released on Tuesday, DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille said the party's federal executive decided to act against Fritz.

Fritz was the party's interim Western Cape leader and served on the DA caucus in the Western Cape legislature.

Zille said the committee had resolved to give Fritz 24 hours to supply reasons as to why he should not be suspended from caucus and party activities.

She said the matter had been referred to the DA's federal legal commission.

"Now that the report into the allegations against Mr Fritz has been concluded, the DA can take the necessary action. The DA takes the matter of sexual impropriety, sexual abuse and sexual assault very seriously and will not hesitate to take swift and severe action when these matters arise. The DA is also very aware of the responsibility to protect the victims and ensure that they do not suffer secondary abuse as a result of reporting allegations of abuse and assault," Zille said.

Allegations of sexual misconduct had hovered over Fritz for the past month, and advocate Jennifer Williams was appointed to head an independent investigation into allegations against Fritz.

Fritz, his spokesperson, Wade Seale, the head of the community safety ministry, David Abrahams, support officer Michael Kwaaiman, and another official, Lazola Ndubela, had all been suspended, pending the investigation.

It is understood that the complainants - most of whom are interns in Fritz's office and others involved in the Expanded Public Works Programme - implicated several colleagues who worked in the ministry in alleged acts of grooming and of intoxicating victims before they were allegedly sexually abused.

The DA's move comes after Western Cape Premier Alan Winde fired Fritz from his provincial cabinet.

The independent investigation found:

• Sufficient credibility in the allegations of sexual misconduct;
• Credibility in the claims of alcohol abuse; and
• Strong evidence of Fritz creating an environment conducive to sexual harassment, or alternatively, taking advantage of young women sexually. 

Winde said that he was shocked by Fritz's actions. 

"I am extremely angry at what appears to be verifiable incidences of serious sexual misconduct by him, in circumstances which in and of themselves were inappropriate.

"That it is by someone who has been tasked to protect our youth and our communities, is to me unfathomable. It is a shocking violation of his oath of office and the principles of our constitutional democracy," Winde said in a statement on Tuesday.