Publications
Partners
"Give me two weeks, then we will talk," outgoing Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said in response to speculation that the Independent Democrats (ID) could be revived.
De Lille told the media on the steps of the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday that she would officially hand over her mayoral chain at 19:00 on Wednesday. She was also leaving the Democratic Alliance.
When asked about her future and the possible revival of the party she had founded in 2003, De Lille said she had not "made any commitments to anyone".
"I said to all of them: 'Give me the space. Give me the next two weeks [so] that I can go decide what I will do with my future. Then we will talk,'" she told journalists.
OVERVIEW: 'I am free' - De Lille resigns as mayor, quits DA
In 2010, the ID merged with the DA to challenge the ANC in the 2011 local and 2014 general elections, then-leaders De Lille and Helen Zille said at the time.
All ID public representatives took on dual DA-ID membership as the ID was phased out as a separate organisation over four years.
On Wednesday, De Lille said there was a "campaign" in the DA to "target all those ID members in the DA".
"Lots of them are very unhappy. I have said to them: 'You must fight your own battles like I am fighting mine. Fight your battles on principle. Fight your battles within structures and procedures of the party'."
De Lille said she would take two weeks' "leave" and focus on completing the book she was writing about her political wars.
She told News24 earlier this month in an exclusive interview that foundations across the country have already approached her, but she had not decided on her next move.
She would have clarity once she discussed it with her family, she reiterated.
De Lille has, however, maintained that retirement was not part of her plans.
De Lille was at court on Wednesday to file an application to review the Bowmans reports into maladministration in the City.
The report recommended that De Lille and other members of the City council be criminally charged for, among other things, not reporting suspicious behaviour and transactions in the City's transport portfolio to the council.
De Lille said she was confident in the independence of the judiciary to come to a proper conclusion around the findings of the reports.
