Aunty Pat is back and she is ready to take on the DA in next year’s elections.
Former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille on Sunday announced she will be launching a new political party.
De Lille, who hung up her mayoral chain last month following months of bitter infighting between her, members of her mayoral committee, and leaders of the Democratic Alliance, said the new party’s name would be unveiled in another two weeks’ time.
“We will be launching a new political party that will contest the 2019 elections in all nine provinces. Our party will be putting people before politics,” she said.
“We will be a part of less talk and more action. I really have got enough energy left. It’s time for a new political order in our country.”
It remains unclear whether the Independent Democrats, formed by De Lille some years ago and which is still registered as a political party, will be revived.
De Lille indicated that because the DA had allowed dual membership, she still held her ID membership.
The ID’s website is still active while the contact number for the party is also registered in De Lille’s name.
In 2010, the ID and DA merged and that led to the DA governing almost all municipalities in the Western Cape and the provincial government in 2009.
The details of De Lille’s new political home will be publicly announced in about two weeks, and she indicated an elections manifesto would be ready by January - a mere two months away.
The DA’s national spokesman, MP Solly Malatsi, says De Lille won’t be a threat for them.
“There are over 500 political parties in South Africa, Ms De Lille’s one will form part of that group,” he says.
“The real test for any organisation will be at the polls on election day.
“Ms De Lille’s latest political move is consistent with her brand over the years.
“She has, whenever it has been politically expedient, moved from one political movement to another.
“Ms De Lille was at odds with the DA because she refused to be held accountable when revelations of her covering up corruption came to the fore.
“She must now account for the criminal and corruption charges she faces.”