DA leader Mmusi Maimane has been given until 6pm on Monday afternoon to apologise “for making false and defamatory allegations” against five Cape Town city council members who quit last week.
“We did so individually and after each of us had taken a long considered personal decision about our future in the DA.
“Each of us did so for our own reasons. However‚ it soon became clear that there is significant commonality in what brought us to make our decisions. The party is racist‚ dishonest and unethical. It is a total sham‚” the group said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.
The five are Shaun August‚ Suzette Little‚ Siya Mamkeli‚ Thulani Stemele and Greg Barnardo.
TimesLIVE requested comment from Maimaine’s office on Sunday afternoon‚ which would only say: “Mr Maimane has received the letter‚ and is seeking legal advice on the matter.”
Maimane had written in his newsletter on Friday that the former councillors were implicated in tender irregularities in the Bowmans report into suspected misconduct and corruption at the city council transport authority.
The former councillors hit back on Sunday: “Maimane and the DA are just as unethical and dishonest as we found them to be whilst inside the party. There are two Bowmans reports. Neither of them make any findings against any one of us. In fact neither of the reports even mention our names.
“Maimane‚ and the DA‚ have launched a dirty tricks campaign against us.”
The group vowed to “stand up to the bullying Goliath”.
“Our attorney demanded that he retract the false and defamatory allegations against us in the same manner in which he made them.”
The former councillors want him to apologise in both a media statement and in his newsletter. “Maimane has until 6pm on Monday to comply, failing which we intend to sue him and the DA.”
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