A full bench on Monday said it will take time to deliver judgment.

De Lille had lodged a complaint with the IEC against the DA, charging that her former party had used its pre-election telemarketing campaign to spread lies about her.

The DA is appealing the findings of the IEC that found that the party breached the electoral code when it said De Lille was fired from their party, and also to challenge the power of the IEC to order them to apologise.

The DA's legal team argued that the word "fired" should not be read in its literal sense.

The IEC had given the DA three days to publicly apologise to De Lille for untruthfully telling voters in a telemarketing election campaign that they had fired her because she was corrupt, when in fact she had resigned and had been denied the opportunity to answer to the corruption charge.

An IEC legal representative said false statements can undermine free and fair elections.

De Lille said that the DA had claimed that they fired her but had not presented any proof saying the DA was telling "blue lies" and if they have any evidence "that they ever fired me they must present it before the court".

"For the past two years the DA they have been trying to ruin my name, coming with false accusations, I have won three court cases against them and this is just a continuation of that fight," said De Lille.

She said it was going to be interesting to see what the outcome of the DA application was going to be.

De Lille and the DA parted ways in October last year following months of public spats and protracted legal battles over the DA’s allegations that she was involved in corruption. 

De Lille left to form a new political party, Good, and she made it to Parliament as an MP. In a surprise move last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa named the veteran politician as Minister of Public Works. 

ANA