Khoza fired over plot
DISMISSED: EX-KZN LEADER WANTED ‘TO DEAL’ WITH ACTIONSA’S MASHABA
Makhosi guilty – but claims she’s not been informed of termination.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba was apparently shocked to learn the party’s now-fired senior leader, Makhosi Khoza, was allegedly plotting against him with other dismissed members.
That’s according to ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont, who said Mashaba couldn’t understand why Khoza – as one of the founding members – was allegedly in communication with the ringleaders of a group of dismissed ActionSA members from Soweto.
The group had previously been found to have acted to deliberately destabilise ActionSA. “I think he was shocked and he could not understand why an individual in Dr Khoza’s seniority in the party would elect to behave in the manner she did,” Beaumont said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.
“It’s particularly odd when you have people involved in building the organisation, who then behave in such a manner as to try and break it down. It becomes very difficult to understand.”
ActionSA announced yesterday its senate – the party’s highest decision-making body – had resolved to terminate Khoza’s membership on the recommendations of its ethics and disciplinary committee.
However, taking to Facebook soon after the announcement, Khoza disputed she had received any communication about the termination of her membership.
This followed a disciplinary inquiry into her conduct after a series of “public outbursts” in January.
The former KwaZulu-Natal
leader was charged with bringing ActionSA into disrepute; deliberately acting in a way which negatively impacts the party; and acting in a manner that caused disunity in the party.
Beaumont said evidence before the disciplinary panel showed Khoza and one of the ringleaders of the group from Soweto, were plotting to “deal with” Mashaba.
This conversation apparently took place in close proximity to a protest in January outside the City of Joburg Council Chamber by a group of disgruntled members, who chanted Khoza’s name.
Beaumont said when the evidence was presented to Khoza during her disciplinary hearing, she did not produce counter-evidence to refute the claims made against her.
He also disputed Khoza’s claims ActionSA did not inform her of her dismal from the party, adding she would not be able to appeal the party’s decision to fire her.
“ActionSA doesn’t make any provisions within its internal processes for appeal as of course is the case in South Africa for all individuals. That right exists in
individuals’ ability to go on review to a court,” Beaumont said.
Having faced protests from disgruntled party members and Khoza being fired, Beaumont denied ActionSA was in any way facing internal instability or headed for trouble.
He said unlike other new parties which had struggled to stay intact, ActionSA was using its internal institutions to deal with unruly members.
“The instability you have seen in other new political parties in the past has been because of their failure of internal institutions to address complex issues like this.
“What we have here is a dynamic where ActionSA has an organisation, little over one year old, has been able to use its internal institutions to run a disciplinary process – a credible process chaired by an acting judge – and in that process, we have come to an outcome in a matter of two months.”
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