Khoza given new post amid ANC storm

OUTSPOKEN ANC MP Makhosi Khoza has been redeployed to the portfolio committee on economic development after she was removed as chairperson of another committee last month.

Khoza, who has been openly critical of the ANC and called for President Jacob Zuma to step down, was removed as chairperson of the portfolio committee on public service and administration after several ANC MPs boycotted a committee meeting she was to chair.

Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi also did not pitch up to account for allegations that she had flown family and friends to her budget speech in Parliament in May, and that she had overstaffed her private office.

Khoza has replaced Daphne Rantho on the economic development committee.

Staunch Zuma supporter Mervyn Dirks has been replaced on the public service and administration committee by Dalton Khosa. Dirks will now serve on the portfolio committee on small business development.

Last month, ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu announced Khoza’s removal from the committee, citing “the irretrievable breakdown of relations between herself and ANC members of the committee”.

Mthembu attributed the “loss of trust” to “her public utterances preceding the motion of no-confidence vote in President Jacob Zuma and her continued public attacks on ANC leadership and members of her ANC caucus, who voted against the motion on August 8, 2017”.

Khoza has publicly revealed that her life and the lives of her family had been threatened recently. The police offered her protection after she posted on Facebook several threatening SMSes sent to her.

She later declined protection from the police.