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ANC to De Lille: Pay back the money

ANC leader in the City of Cape Town‚ Xolani Sotashe‚ has given mayor Patricia de Lille five days to pay back the money used for security upgrades to her private home.

Sotashe said if De Lille does not comply‚ they will bring the masses to picket at the city’s head offices.

 He also said his party will file a complaint with the office of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to investigate the matter.

For the second day running‚ the party picketed outside De Lille’s house in Pinelands demanding that she pay back more than R702‚000.

 Sotashe said they were begging De Lille to cough up because “she knows that she stole the money from the taxpayers”.

“If she believes that she has paid…for these renovations‚ she is supposed to prove to everybody ...people are still waiting for her to prove us wrong‚” said Sotashe.

He vowed that ANC would “bring Cape Town to the Civic Centre” if De Lille fails to heed the demand.

 Sotashe said they had information that the first security assessment at her home was done in 2014 and the council had paid for the work done that year.

“Recently she took a decision to renovate her house‚ which affected the work that was done in 2014‚ so what she was supposed to do was to go back to council and seek consent‚” said Sotashe.

He said De Lille was lying when she claimed that she paid for all the subsequent work done on her house.

 Sotashe alleged that De Lille had installed more than 13 CCTV cameras in her house while in contrast‚ a number of Capetonians living in areas like Langa‚ Gugulethu and Khayelitsha were the ones in real need of this technology.

But council speaker Dirk Smit has slammed Sotashe’s statements as misleading.

 “The amount of R700‚000 which the ANC is using to create sensation was made available for security measures to be implemented at the mayor’s residence. The full amount was not utilised‚” said Smit.

He said R451‚000 had been paid by council for security measures only.

“Members of the ANC are misleading the media and members of the public by trying to create confusion and insinuate that the city paid for renovations. This is a lie. The city only paid for the security measures which SAPS instructed should be implemented‚” added Smit.

He said his office welcomed the ANC’s statements that it would lay a complaint with Mkhwebane’s office.

De Lille’s spokesperson‚ Zara Nicholson‚ referred our reporter to Smit.

 

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