Cape Town - Mayor Patricia de Lille has given four fellow DA senior members until October 18 to publicly apologise for what she said were defamatory statements.

She penned a letter to DA member Henk Hugo, DA KwaZulu-Natal deputy provincial chairperson Shehana Kajee, DA deputy chief whip Mike Waters and National Council of Provinces MP Bronwynn Engelbrecht.

She said she wrote to them because the four reposted or otherwise distributed an image on social media which made claims about various “findings” against her by the auditor-general.

“In May this year, the auditor-general dismissed the contents as fake. Not only was the AG’s signature forged, but his office denied knowing anything about the origins of the document.

"By reposting or otherwise distributing the document, you published defamatory material regarding me, which is aggravated by the fact that this was done as part of a concerted effort to discredit me for political reasons.”