Khoza unfazed by removal as committee chair

Outspoken ANC MP Makhosi Khoza said on Thursday she had expected to be removed from her position as chairwoman of Parliament’s portfolio committee on public service and administration after she openly criticised President Jacob Zuma.

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu confirmed that Khoza would step down with immediate effect owing to the “irretrievable breakdown of relations between herself and party members of the committee”.

Mthembu said Khoza’s public attacks on Zuma had alienated ANC MPs including those serving on her committee.

“The erosion of trust in her as a chairperson has led to acrimonious verbal exchanges between her and members of the study group in meetings and on social media. The decision to relieve her as chairperson comes after numerous failed attempts by the leadership of the organisation to counsel her on her behaviour,” said Mthembu.

Khoza would remain an MP, pending the outcome of ANC disciplinary action against her, said Mthembu. She is facing disciplinary action in her home province of KwaZulu-Natal.

On Tuesday, five ANC committee members boycotted a meeting called by Khoza to probe allegations that Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi spent R300,000 to fly relatives and friends to Cape Town to watch her budget speech in Parliament in May. Muthambi, a Zuma ally, also skipped the meeting.

In a letter to Mthembu, the five MPs said they would not attend the committee meeting because they believed Khoza had contravened the ANC’s disciplinary code. This was after Khoza publicly backed a vote of no confidence in Zuma.

“I am not shocked at all,” Khoza said on Thursday.

“My ANC took a decision on August 8 [the day of the noconfidence vote] … that they will purge [supporters of the motion], so I was prepared for this.”

Khoza said some ANC members had resolved at a meeting this week of the ANC study group on public service and administration which Muthambi also attended, to put pressure on ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to act against her. “So Gwede has listened to them … but I am determined to keep fighting at whatever cost. I have received death threats, so being fired is nothing,” she said.

Earlier this week, Mantashe said the national working committee had decided to discipline at least three MPs who had publicly declared they would vote against Zuma during the motion of no confidence.

This was after Zuma said at the weekend that the rebel MPs had “broken the constitutional laws of the ANC”.

The DA-sponsored motion of no confidence was defeated by a narrow margin, but between 30 and 40 ANC MPs are believed to have voted for the motion and against the president.