How far will ANC dare to go?

THE RULING ANC fired outspoken MP Mak- hosi Khoza as the chairperson of Parlia- ment’s public service and administration portfolio committee on Thursday. This should not have surprised anyone. Khoza has been outspoken in her unequivocal rejection of Jacob Zuma’s tenure as South African president. She never hid this in the run-up to the secret bal- lot on August 8, when Parliament held the eighth no-confidence debate in the eighth year of Zuma’s tenure. This week, ANC committee members boycotted the portfolio committee meeting in protest at her continued presence. On Thursday, ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu announced his office had been directed to remove her from her position due to the “irretrievable breakdown of relations” with her fellow MPs. She will remain an MP pending the out- come of a disciplinary hearing into her conduct. At an organisational level, the party’s decision is understandable. No party in Parliament can afford rogue members defying its instructions. Khoza, though, is no ordinary MP and her disobedience, while vocal, is neither normal nor unique. On Thursday, Mthembu warned the ANC that the composition of the portfolio committee would be reviewed. This is normal practice, but in the context it looks suspiciously like a witch-hunt, the act of those affronted by a rebellion that was more widespread than anyone dared to expect. There are several other high-profile dissident ANC MPs who will be in the firing line. The question is just how far the ANC dares go to re-establish party discipline in the party caucus and the cost that will be exacted in the broader or- ganisation as the clock ticks down to the all-import- ant December elective conference. This is a high-stakes game for survival, in Par- liament and without, the success – or failure – of which we will all know very shortly.