Khoza sticks to her guns, fails to appear at ANC hearing

EMBATTLED ANC MP Makhosi Khoza’s has been told that she will have to appear before the party’s KwaZulu-Natal disciplinary committee (PDC) next month to avoid being found guilty in absentia.

Khoza’s hearing was postponed again yesterday after she wrote a letter to the committee indicating that she was unprepared to subject herself to it as it falls under the auspices of the provincial executive committee (PEC) which had been nullified by the Pietermaritzburg High Court last week.

Members of the committee yesterday postponed the hearing to October 1 after Khoza stuck to her guns and neither she nor her lawyer, advocate Smanga Sethene, pitched up at the province’s Pixley ka Seme office in Durban.

On September 10, the date of the first scheduled disciplinary hearing, Sethene arrived without Khoza, the latter having raised concerns about her safety following threats made against her.

Committee members had yesterday gathered at 9am but postponed the matter almost immediately.

Speaking to the media afterwards, ANC provincial spokesman Mdumiseni Ntuli insisted that the committee still had the power to try and discipline Khoza.

Despite the court ruling, the PEC had not been dissolved by the national executive committee (NEC), he said. He said Khoza’s defiance of the committee was based on a flawed understanding of the court judgment, which he said had not disbanded or prevented the current PEC from exercising it duties. He said the provincial structure was working with the NEC to appeal against the judgment.

“The NEC is of the view that Comrade Makhosi is charged by the party, not by the PEC.

“The PEC has not been dissolved (by the NEC) and it must act on behalf of the party because the matter that is affecting the PEC is a matter that is subject to internal processes of the organisation,” said Ntuli.

Ntuli said the committee had scheduled Khoza’s disciplinary hearing for yesterday because during the week, the committee had held discussions “not confined to the concerns about the legitimacy of the process (disciplinary hearing) and the legitimacy of the PEC”.

Ntuli said Khoza and her legal team had acted in an “unimaginable and unexpected” manner yesterday morning as they were not available on their phones.

He said if Khoza continues to be “defiant”, the committee would then proceed and pass judgment.

When contacted, Sethene said he was no longer prepared to discuss the matter with the media, and referred queries to Khoza, who did not answer her phone.

However, in the letter sent to the committee last week, Khoza said the committee was violating her rights as the PEC had been nullified.