ANC SACKS KHOZA
ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza has been sacked by her party as chairperson of Parliament’s public service and administration committee.
It was just a day after minister Faith Muthambi failed to pitch up at the committee’s meeting to explain allegations she splurged tens of thousands of rand from the public purse on family and friends during a trip.
The ANC’s alliance partners, the SA Communist Party and the Congress of SA Trade Unions, rejected Khoza’s dismissal.
They had warned earlier that a purge would divide the party.
On Wednesday, the ANC was embroiled in an ugly public spat with the SACP over the decision of its national working committee to discipline MPs who confirmed voting for President Jacob Zuma’s removal in last week’s no-confidence vote.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said they had received a “directive from the organisation to relieve” Khoza as head of the committee “owing to the irretrievable breakdown of relations between herself and ANC members of the committee” who boycotted a meeting of the committee on Tuesday because of Khoza.
Mthembu said disciplinary measures against the MPs who boycotted that meeting were already under way.
He said the ANC had made numerous attempts to call Khoza to order before deciding to fire her.
He said the decision was effective immediately but she would remain an ANC member of Parliament pending the outcome of a disciplinary process instituted by the provincial leadership of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.
Khoza has said that both the ANC and Zuma had lost their way, and refused to retract her remarks. She could not immediately be reached for comment.
The party’s alliance partners yesterday blasted the decision to dump Khoza, saying it would further entrench divisions in the party and that the ANC needed to perform introspection instead.
SACP acting national spokesperson Mhlekwa Nxumalo said the decision was a product of infighting in the ANC.
“It seems there is a dominant faction that seems to be getting everything they want from the ANC.
“This decision is going to cause more problems in the ANC. We don’t think this is going to help the ANC in any way,” Nxumalo said, adding they had warned the ANC about the dangers of embarking on a witch-hunt.
“We don’t support the decision because we don’t think she was removed because of her failure to lead the committee. This decision will be perceived as factional by the public,” he said.
Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the ANC needed to acknowledge that it was in trouble and that “President Zuma is one of the most polarising figures we have ever had”.
“In over a decade that he (Zuma) has been in charge, the ANC has been purging people.
“Cope is as a result of Zuma coming into power, the EFF is a result of Zuma’s leadership, and the Cosatu versus Numsa and Vavi saga had a lot to do with Zuma as a leader of the alliance.”
Pamla said all the issues pointed to the fact that the party needed to reflect.
“Getting rid of dissenting voices and purging people is not going to solve problems, unfortunately.
“President Zuma is the source and centre of what is going wrong in the ANC,” he said.
He described Zuma as a “very compromised leader who is taking the organisation down.
“The ANC has to ask itself: ‘Is it worth it to defend one man?’.”
ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa directed questions to the ANC caucus in Parliament.
“It’s them who can explain why there was a decision taken,” he said.