De Lille accused of employing family

THE ANC in Western Cape has upped its electioneering game, accusing the DA's mayoral candidate Patricia de Lille of nepotism

The Independent Democrats (ID) leader is the DA mayoral candidate for Cape Town and is also the Western Cape MEC for social development.

De Lille is accused of employing her son, Alistair de Lille, as ID head of finance in Parliament without qualifications or experience in this field.

The ID in Parliament has confirmed that he is their head of finance.

It is already known that De Lille took ID member Brett Herron off the party's list after the 2009 elections, giving her sister, Sarah Paulse, his position as an MP instead. Paulse's husband, Desmond, is De Lille's driver.

ANC Western Cape provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said De Lille had also "ensured the appointment of Paulse's son, Shaun, in the Witzenberg municipality mayor's office as strategic manager and then appointed him in Stellenbosch municipality's deputy mayoral office".

He said she made ID councillors in Theewaterskloof municipality (run by a DA-ID coalition) appoint her sister Veronica Paulse as senior manager responsible for the small town of Riviersonderend, without relevant experience, qualification or competence.

Paulse now works at the City of Cape Town.

"De Lille instructed the ID caucus to appoint Nadia McGluwa, her close friend and the wife of ID MP Joe McGluwa, as accountant at Theewaterskloof municipality," Mjongile said.

Sowetan established that McGluwa did work as Theewaterskloof municipality's accountant but resigned two years ago.

"De Lille's sister, Cynthia Jeffreys, was appointed as a sub-council chair in the City of Cape Town by the DA. De Lille also appointed her brother-in-law Vern Jeffreys (Cynthia's husband) as a director in the Western Cape provincial government.

"He has no experience or qualification suitedfor the post," said Mjongile.

Cynthia Jeffreys is a ward councillor in the city, but Sowetan established that her husband Vern is provincial director of the ID, and does not work for the government.

"What we have here is a coalition of friends using state resources to enrich themselves. The ID-DA alliance is morally corrupt," Mjongile said.

De Lille's DA mayoral spokesperson, Marike Groenewald said the DA would not comment because the allegations were about the ID. She referred all queries to ID MP Lance Greyling in his capacity as ID chief whip.

But Greyling dismissed the allegations as "baseless nonsense".