Dear supporters of this petition Thank you for your continued support. Our petition now stands at 1,195 supporters. As a voter for the DA and Mayor Patricia De Lille in the 2016 local government elections, I am satisfied with the detailed explanation she has given to all the unsubstantiated allegations on the ANN7 interview on the 10th of January 2018. Please listen to this interview to the answers given by Mayor De Lille. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evpm4iF7l3c It is a pity that Mayor De Lille had to give her defence on ANN7 and that she was not allowed to give it to the DA Federal Executive in the first instance when the allegations were starting to emerge five months ago. Much embarrassment could have been avoided if the DA Federal Executive spoke to De Lille face to face about all the allegations. Why the need to hire an expensive law firm to investigate De Lille if you could so easily have spoken to her on a one to one basis. Is that not what leaders are supposed to do? Why the cloak and dagger tactics to find out the truth? I have noticed the long list of charges by the DA Federal Council against De Lille based on a contested report, the Bowman Gilfillan report. Why is this report more acceptable and more accurate than the mayor’s own testimony? It was a grave political mistake by the Federal Executive of the DA to have approached a firm of attorneys (Bowmans) to investigate the mayor of Cape Town. This in itself is vote of no confidence in her. The DA leadership should have taken the time to call in the mayor personally to give an account of the many allegations to members of the Federal executive. Only now are charges being brought, after a huge, public, political spat with De Lille, which was completely unnecessary. This kind of backroom political activity gives credence to the wide spread suspicion by voters that there is a plot by the DA Federal executive to remove De Lille clandestinely. As voters, we want transparency and the investigation of the mayor must be done in the open for all the voters to see. We want to personally examine the evidence against her and we want the mayor herself to explain what happened. http://ewn.co.za/2018/01/06/de-lille-says-bowman-report-contains-factual-errors I still believe that Patricia De Lille is the best equipped and best qualified person to govern the City of Cape Town. The international awards to the City of Cape Town for being the best run metropolitan city in South Africa and being voted the best run city throughout the whole of Africa, attests to that. https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/city-of-cape-town-best-financially-managed-metro-2012258 https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2016-07-07-cape-town-voted-top-city-in-africa/ https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2015-11-30-cape-town-in-bid-to-win-worlds-best-city-fourth-time-running/