De Lille further added that she only discovered later that Bowman’s brief had been extended in August – at an extra cost of R822‚000‚ which was paid to the company through a deviation under special circumstances. But this time around the city had appointed Bowman’s Johannesburg office to investigate her.
She also claimed that the DA received a copy of the damning report on Tuesday and issued a press statement despite the report being confidential and before it was sent to the city council on Thursday.
De Lille said her problems with certain individuals in the DA started in 2016 when‚ after winning a 66.6% majority after the Local Government Elections‚ she had to appoint people to executive positions.
“Everybody wanted an executive position. It really started there…and the next thing what took it further is when Alderman JP Smith publicly accused me [saying] that there was wrongdoing with upgrades at my house.
“I was bashed in the media for two weeks. The party didn’t come to my rescue.
“That’s where the thing started when JP Smith accused me of using city-owned money‚” she said.