Khoza hearing delayed amid more death threats
The disciplinary hearing against outspoken ANC MP Makhosi Khoza has been postponed to September 17 to provide her representative with time to prepare. According the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, the proceedings, scheduled for yesterday at Pixley Ka-Seme House, the ANC’s provincial office, began an hour late and Khoza was not present.
Instead, she was represented by her lawyer, Smanga Sethene, who indicated her absence was the result of new threats against her on Saturday night.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli said Sethene also pointed out that he was only instructed by Khoza on Saturday, which Ntuli said contradicted Khoza’s formal communication with the Provincial Disciplinary Committee on July 26, when she indicated she was consulting with her representatives.
Ntuli said the case had been adjourned until next Sunday to accommodate the request made by her representative for more time to prepare for the hearing.
Khoza, pictured, faces charges of ill discipline, failing to comply with ANC policy, provoking division and bringing the party into disrepute, with all but one of these relating to posts she made on her Facebook account. She is a vehement critic of President Jacob Zuma.
She has pledged to accept the outcome of her disciplinary hearing in Durban regardless of the decision.
Khoza said on Saturday night she would not be at the hearing. “My attorney will be there. I could not get flights to get me there at 9am.” Yesterday, she posted on her page that “by the end of today I may possibly be stripped of my black, green and gold brand. I do not mind. I joined the ANC because of the love I have for my country and its people”.
She added: “If we disagree on this fundamental point of convergence I have no business to be in that organisation because that which has bound us for 35 years has been broken. I shall never trade truth for a job, position, brand, or anything.
“Whatever outcome I’ll accept with both hands and be free to exercise my constitutional right to moral conscience. Yes! I will rise. I’m ahead,” she wrote in her Facebook post.
On Friday, Khoza said she feared being “gunned down” on her way to the disciplinary hearing. She has said publicly that she has received numerous death threats because of her statements and the life of her daughter has also been threatened.
KwaZulu-Natal has seen so many politically-linked killings in the past few years that Premier Willies Mchunu established the Moerane Commission of Inquiry in 2016 to probe the violence. Numerous witnesses testified that the killings are linked to a desire for political positions and greed.