- \n
- Read: City of Cape Town accused of muzzling dissenter<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The party hierarchy reacted not by probing a serious allegation of the abuse of local government power for party gain, but by ordering a forensic inquiry into Haywood at considerable cost to the public purse. It now appears that she faces possible disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
In the latest development, a court case ordered by De Lille to defend the planning decision has been quietly shelved, leaving the impression that the party leapt to shield itself and then took the calculated decision that it would be too damaging to have Haywood\u2019s allegations aired and thoroughly tested in open court.<\/p>\n
A fight over planning permission may not sound like a major issue, but the fear is that it could be a straw in the wind. The Mail & Guardian<\/em> recently reported<\/a> that questions had also been asked about De Lille\u2019s role in promoting a major commercial development in the Clifton coastal reserve from which some of her friends sought to benefit.<\/p>\n
At issue is what some have described as \u201cthe sins of incumbency\u201d \u2013 what happens to political formations when they move from opposition and become securely ensconced in government.<\/p>\n
It is painless for a party to stand on strict principle when it has no power to abuse. What really matters is how it conducts itself when it acquires the political capital to reward itself and its followers.<\/p>\n
Not very long ago, the DA\u2019s control of Cape Town was a fragile thing \u2013 assailed from all sides and forced into alliances of convenience, its survival dependent on persuading the city\u2019s voters that it served their interests.<\/p>\n
It now holds more than 60% of the seats in the metro council. The fear is that its increasingly unassailable majority will bring complacency \u2013 and worse, the politics of the pork barrel.<\/p>\n
*This comment originally appeared as an editorial in the Mail & Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n
* Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
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<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fight over planning permission may not sound like a major issue for the DA, but the fear is that it could be a straw in the wind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}