DA federal council chair Helen Zille, former DA MP Mike Waters, and former chief whip Natasha Mazzone have allegedly piggybacked and used the sexual harassment case filed by a junior party councillor to get rid of their opponent and black caucus leader in Ekurhuleni.
Former DA councillor, Ilaria De Siena alleged that Zille, Waters and Mazzone used her case against Philip De Lange to purge him from the blue party.
These explosive details are contained in email communication and text messages between De Lange and De Siena.
In the messages seen by Sunday World, De Siena alleged that Zille encouraged her to file a complaint of sexual harassment against De Lange, which she did.
This resulted in De Lange, who fiercely opposed racism in the party, being shown the door ahead of the 2021 local government elections.
De Siena alleged that Zille, in cahoots with Waters and Mazzone, manipulated her into throwing De Lange under the bus for their own selfish political reasons.
“They accused him of financial mismanagement and said he was going to be out whether I told them the story or not,” she wrote.
In a series of text messages on Facebook Messenger seen by Sunday World, De Siena apologised to De Lange, admitting her role in the scandal.
“I did wrong, though I should have never written that email for Helen. I f*cked you over for which I’m deeply sorry, but they told me you’re going (anyway), it had nothing to do with me.”
De Siena told Sunday World that when she first joined the DA, De Lange showed romantic interest in her and once sent her a link that contained X-rated material.
She said the matter was resolved privately and that there was no intention to lay a complaint until senior DA leaders caught wind of the incident and took advantage of it
De Siena, who has since relocated to Italy, also shared an email showing Zille editing a statement prepared under her name to be distributed to the media at the height of the controversy.
The email thread showed how Zille was coaching De Siena on how to structure and frame her would-be media release to smear De Lange.
In the email, Zille wrote to Mazzone: “Dear Tash, I have edited Ilaria’s piece slightly. I need the date from her as to when she got to council, and she obviously needs to check that all the details are accurate. Otherwise, all good.”
Mazzone then forwarded the message to De Siena, referring to Zille as “Zia” (Italian for aunt). De Siena and Mazzone, although South African, are both of Italian descent.
The version of the statement crafted by Zille described De Lange as a bully who made De Siena deeply uncomfortable, citing persistent messages, inappropriate innuendos, and an alleged sexually explicit video link. It also accused him of dancing “too close” to her at a DA year-end function, which led to a confrontation with her boyfriend.
The same statement accused De Lange of fabricating a “sex-for-jobs” scandal to target Waters. It concluded with a harsh dismissal of De Lange’s claims that he was targeted because of his race.
“He should have gone quietly and not claimed he was the victim of racism. Playing the race card to cover tracks has become the last refuge of political scoundrels,” the Zille-edited statement read.
De Siena is adamant that those were not her words. “What I did was write an email about messages. And then Helen amended it to suit her (agenda),” she said in a text to De Lange on Facebook.
De Lange, for his part, insisted the entire episode was politically motivated. “The allegations were orchestrated to destroy my credibility,” he said.
“I was exposing institutional racism, and that made me a threat. This was about protecting certain white leaders, not justice or accountability.”
For De Siena, once a loyal foot soldier in the DA’s blue ranks, her apparent remorse now casts fresh light on how far the party’s leadership was allegedly willing to go to sideline a black leader who challenged the status quo.
“I did make it clear that he cannot say he did not do any-thing,” she said. “But it was wrong for them to tell me they just needed extra information to get rid of him. Mike Waters wanted Philip out, he pulls the strings, and when he needs to, he gets Helen and Natasha involved.”
According to De Siena, she was drawn into a campaign to gather information about him. She recalls a WhatsApp conversation with Mazzone in which the senior DA MP, now a backbencher, allegedly outlined plans to remove De Lange, promising De Siena political protection. “But I later saw how I should have never trusted Mike,” she said.
Zille said there was nothing untoward with her actions.
“I do not recall any specific media statement about this issue. But if there was one, there would have been nothing unusual in my editing it. There are established processes in the DA, as in any political party, for approving statements. In that process we often improve statements through editing, but we never change the facts,” she said.
Mazzone said she won’t comment because she was bound by a non-disclosure agreement on the matter, while Waters pleaded ignorance.
