Former Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko says her support for the party is not meant to last forever.

Mazibuko has also stated she still does not understand why the party and its Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille were embroiled in a bitter fight‚ saying there was no need for the DA to "bleed itself in the public square”.

Mazibuko made the remarks while delivering the Barry Streek memorial lecture at a function held by the Cape Town Press Club in Newlands on Tuesday night.

Streek was a political journalist and a long-serving member of the Cape Town Press Club‚ who passed away in 2006. A scholarship was set up several years ago in his honour to sponsor journalism students at Rhodes University.

Responding to questions from journalists‚ Mazibuko let it be known that she is no longer a card-carrying member of the DA and that she allowed her membership to lapse when she stepped down as parliamentary leader in 2014.

However‚ she said she remained a DA supporter - but she could not guarantee if this would last eternally.

Mazibuko recently raised eyebrows when she frequented events organised by the ANC‚ but has strongly denied rumours that she was about to cross over to the governing party.

"If there's an election tomorrow I would still be a DA supporter‚ but my support for the DA is not forever. My blood is not blue‚ well it's blue until it gets oxygen then it's red‚" Mazibuko said amid chuckles from the audience.

"So my take is that allegiance to any political party should not be forever and this culture of political parties being like religion really has to change."

Mazibuko added that she was baffled by the ugly public spat between the DA and De Lille‚ suggesting that the embattled Cape Town mayor was being targeted because of her gender.

"I would like to know what the Patricia de Lille issue is‚ if someone could explain it to me in simple English‚" said Mazibuko.

De Lille is due to face a disciplinary hearing in August. Disciplinary action was instituted against her by the leadership of the DA following a running battle over allegations that she mismanaged several affairs in the City of Cape Town.

"It's not right. A woman is accused of having a bad management style. I've never heard of a man being accused in politics of having a bad management style. Politicians are leaders‚ they're not managers.

"There're allegations of corruption‚ of mismanagement‚ but there's no real evidence… I would like to know how it benefits the party and its aspirations of governance to bleed itself in the public square in this fashion‚ I simply don't understand‚” she said.

Mazibuko‚ who recently set up a politically non-aligned civil body‚ the Apolitical Academy‚ which seeks to groom future public leaders‚ said the country's political system and electoral laws needed to be challenged in the Constitutional Court.

She said the political system and the laws governing the elections gave too much powers to party bosses.

Mazibuko argued that if the spirit of the constitution was properly applied‚ party chiefs would not be allowed to threaten dissenting public representatives with job losses.