Cape Town - Patricia de Lille, the founder and leader of the Good Party who is also the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration is a decorated figure in the fight against graft in the public sector.
She has done almost everything to the extent that she has been lined up as the first witness in the ongoing Jacob Zuma arms deal corruption trial.
This is because De Lille was the original whistle-blower in the late 1990s when South Africa spent billions of rand to purchase modern arms while it was not preparing for any war.
It was after her whistle-blowing that the likes of Tony Yengeni, Zuma and the French arms company, Thales, got into trouble with the law.
Later there were allegations of wrongdoing, but no one was willing to stand up until De Lille who was with the PAC then, stood up and blew the whistle in Parliament.
BREAKING NEWS: ANC MP, Thandi Mahambehlala, makes a U-Turn. She says her vote (her vote was yes) was wrongly captured and changes it to "no". DA MP, Siviwe Gwarube raises objection saying there are no rules allowing MPs to change their votes mid-air. @IOL
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) December 13, 2022
She once told the Seriti Commission that she was vilified for that stand she took, but said she never regretted doing it.
Years later De Lille continued to be an anti-graft crusader and it was once claimed that that is what led to her fallout with some DA head honchos while she was the mayor of Cape Town under the party’s ticket.
She has also been on a crusade to clean the department she is heading of corruption. The department is notorious for its inflated government buildings leases.
However, on Tuesday when Parliament voted on the Section 89 report on Phala Phala, a scandal that has entangled Ramaphosa, De Lille decided to abstain.
It’s not clear why she opted to abstain. It was De Lille and Brett Herron who abstained.
Her party’s MP, Brent Herron, when given the podium to speak, raised reservations about the Phala Phala report, saying any decision to act based on it should be rational, and not fuelled by factional politics.
In the end, the ANC got its way when 214 MPs voted no, thus rejecting the report, and defeating it. Only 148 MPs voted for its adoption.
Video: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA)
Notable in their absence was Dr Zweli Mkhize and Lindiwe Sisulu, both of whom who have previously spoken out against Ramaphosa and were widely expected to vote for the adoption of the report.
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