Should the Western Cape High Court grant Abdulkader Elyas’ urgent bid to overturn his expulsion from the DA, the party warns that his return could undermine its disciplinary processes, damage its reputation and displace other candidates on its Cape Town proportional representation (PR) list days before the local government elections.
This is according to a supplementary affidavit submitted to the court on Wednesday before Judge Nontuthuzelo Elizabeth Ralarala.
The court heard arguments in Elyas’ last-minute bid to overturn his membership termination.
But in the DA’s new court papers, the party argues that reinstating its former councillor would effectively undo a disciplinary sanction he agreed to after a controversy over his qualifications, while potentially allowing him to return to the council at another party member’s expense.
But Elyas maintains that he was appointed to the campaign roles at the centre of the dispute by senior DA leaders and argues that the party’s own legal advice previously cleared his work as compliant with the disciplinary agreement.
In its papers, the DA said Elyas was no longer a member because of his “own misconduct and failure to abide by an agreed plea and penalty agreement”.
The court papers read:
The misconduct was so serious that the applicant agreed to the most severe sanction – that his membership should be summarily terminated, but that this sanction should be suspended for a defined period and under certain circumstances.
The dispute centres on whether Elyas breached that agreement by accepting leadership roles in the DA’s Western Cape election campaign while his membership termination was suspended.
Elyas, who was elected as a City of Cape Town proportional representation councillor in 2021, approached the court after the party’s federal executive confirmed its federal legal commission’s finding against him at the end of September this year.
He wants the court to suspend his expulsion, restore his name to the DA’s proportional representation candidate list and prevent the electoral commission from filling the vacancy created by his departure.
The case follows News24’s reporting on Elyas’ qualifications, which led to an internal disciplinary process.
