Expelled DA councillor fights to keep Cape Town council seat ahead of elections

Expelled Cape Town councillor Abdulkader “AK” Elyas’s is fighting to keep his ser in the City of Cape Town council, taking his former party to the Western Cape High Court after it terminated his membership over election campaign roles he says the DA itself had given him.

Elyas is also asking the court to stop the DA from filling the seat and to reinstate him on its proportional-representation candidate list ahead of the 4 November 2026 local government elections.

Natalie Jardine, a representative for Elyas, said both legal teams were ready to proceed on Monday before the postponement was decided.

“Following a meeting with the judge in chambers, the matter has been postponed to Wednesday,” Jardine said.

The urgent application comes ahead of the 4 November local government elections.

Elyas’s membership was terminated after the DA’s Federal Executive adopted a July finding by the party’s Federal Legal Commission (FLC) that he had breached a disciplinary agreement by serving as Ground War Lead/Manager on the party’s Western Cape campaign team.

The dispute stems from a 2024 internal disciplinary matter in which Elyas was found guilty of misrepresenting his academic qualifications, including claims that he held a BCom in Economics with Finance and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.

Elyas said the decision to terminate his membership was unlawful and based on a “patently wrong” finding.

He maintains that his campaign role was an appointment rather than an elected party position, and that “Ground War Lead/Manager” is not a formal DA position.

In his court papers, Elyas argued that without the FLC’s finding, he would have remained a DA member and councillor and could have been re-elected after the November elections.

The DA said it was defending the matter and awaiting the court date.