‘GOODbye, Patricia!’ – Cynthia Jeffreys ditches her sister to join Patriotic Alliance
PA leader Gayton McKenzie says this is all just part of his party's increasing influence on the political scene.
GOOD party leader Patricia de Lille’s sister Cynthia Jeffreys with Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie. Picture: Supplied
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure and GOOD party leader Patricia de Lille’s sister, Cynthia Jeffreys, has resigned from her sister’s party and joined the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
Jeffreys, who served as a councillor in the City of Cape Town from 2007 to 2013, said she left the party because her “worth” and “integrity” were allegedly never recognised in GOOD.
“I am now a signed-up member of the Patriotic Alliance,” she said on Thursday.
Reacting to the new addition to his party, PA leader Gayton McKenzie said this was just the beginning of the PA’s takeover of the Western Cape and even the country.
“If Cynthia is so disillusioned with her own sister’s party you can just imagine how many other people in GOOD feel the same way,” he said.
“Big things are coming and we weren’t making empty promises when we said that the PA is coming for the Western Cape. We want our refund from all these parties that have just used our people’s vote without changing their lives. And it’s not just the Western Cape and Gauteng. The PA is about to be a deciding factor countrywide.”
The PA surprised many in by-elections last week when it took two wards off the Democratic Alliance in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg.
One of the wards, Ward 18, had given the DA nearly 82% of the vote in the 2016 elections, but the PA went on to win it with more than 60% of the vote nearly five years later.
Who is Cynthia Jeffreys?
Cynthia Jeffreys with Patricia de Lille. Picture: Supplied
Jeffreys made headlines in 2019 when she resigned from the public works department as an assistant appointment secretary for “ethical reasons”, though she had 14 years’ experience as a secretary and office administrator.
At the time, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was looking into allegations of nepotism after receiving a complaint about Jeffreys’ appointment. De Lille blamed that complaint on “corrupt elements” in her department who were trying to escape their own accountability.
Jeffreys started out as a member of De Lille’s Independent Democrats, which went on to merge with the DA.
Efforts to get comment from the De Lille and the party’s secretary-general Brett Herron have been fruitless.
This story will be updated once comment has been received.
