Khoza: Too late for ANC to self-correct
The outspoken MP jumped before she could be pushed out of a party that’s become ‘alien’ to her
Former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza says she knew she was going to be fired from the party and made the decision to leave voluntarily — after months of pending disciplinary action, death threats and pleas for the ANC to deal with corruption.
“Goodbye new, alien and corrupt ANC: I quit” was Khoza’s parting shot, adding that she didn’t believe the party would be able to self-correct.
On Thursday, she served notice of her resignation as an MP. Later, a tearful Khoza spoke at Liliesleaf Farm in Johannesburg, in the presence of her children, a few journalists and numerous bodyguards.
“I want to free myself from the ugly, nasty, vicious, factional and inherently corrupt and unprincipled contestation for positions at the 2017 ANC conference,” she said.
As she spoke, in Cape Town a new batch of ANC MPs was being sworn in, among them presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. There is speculation that this move is part of President Jacob Zuma’s exit strategy.
Khoza said: “I refuse to protect corrupt leadership. I refuse to be fired by unprincipled, immoral leaders and will not give them the power to make a mockery of the importance of the rule of law.”
ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said of Khoza: “She had ambitions of being a minister and did not become one, and she has since held a vendetta against the organisation. When she joined the ANC she joined it voluntarily, but when she quits she quits via a media briefing.”
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal believed it had reason to celebrate. “Makhosi Khoza leaving the ANC was long overdue. We are not surprised by the move at all, and we … have finally been vindicated because we were accused of many things, including silencing members, when we took Khoza to the DC [disciplinary committee] a few months ago,” said spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli.
Khoza didn’t arrive for her disciplinary hearing last week, arguing that the courts had found the party’s KwaZulu-Natal executive to be unlawful and that it therefore didn’t have the authority to discipline her.
Khoza said her work in Parliament had become difficult and it pained her that “there are some members of the ANC who ridicule me for following [my] moral conscience”.
She feared that her loyalty to the organisation would endanger her life and the lives of her children.
“If you are within the ANC and you have this critical voice that I have, it is very difficult to survive. It’s actually more dangerous to be within the ANC than to be outside the ANC. Case in point: Sindiso Magaqa.”
Khoza said she wouldn’t join the Democratic Alliance or start her own party, but would work closely with civil society organisations such as Corruption Watch and the South African Women’s Collective.