De Lille victim of a witch-hunt, says Shivambu

The EFF has hit out at the DA which has demanded answers from Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille on why she attended the EFF’s memorial for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela without informing it.

DA federal council chairman James Selfe had earlier said De Lille would have to explain herself but the EFF’s Floyd Shivambu accused the party of targeting De Lille.

“This is evidently [a] witch-hunt by the lily-white liberals‚” Shivambu tweeted yesterday.

“Free State DA provincial leader Patricia Komape and DA members in the Free State were at the memorial service as well. Patricia worked with Mama Winnie and it’s within her right to pay tribute in an appropriate platform‚” he said.

Selfe said De Lille had not informed the DA that she was going to be attending an EFF memorial for Madikizela-Mandela‚ instead of the official state event which was held in the Orlando Stadium in Soweto on the same day.

“There are occasions when politicians of one party address rallies of another party. I mean [DA leader Mmusi Maimane] has done so. But we will require from her some explanation about why she didn’t tell us‚” Selfe said.
He said the party’s response would depend on “under what guise she did that [not telling the party]”.

De Lille declined to comment specifically on Selfe’s comments.

“I am not prepared to do an interview . . . we must show respect for Mama Winnie‚ that’s why I went to pay tribute to her as a friend‚” De Lille said.

De Lille’s appearance at the EFF event raised a lot of eyebrows.

This is not the first time De Lille has been linked to the EFF, but the party’s leader, Julius Malema, denied that De Lille might be joining it.

“She is coming as a speaker because she worked very close with uMama but she is not joining the EFF‚” Malema said ahead of the memorial.

Addressing the crowd at the memorial‚ De Lille spoke fondly about Madikizela-Mandela and their relationship. – TimesLIVE