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Defiant Khoza says she remains portfolio committee chairperson
Khoza and members of the portfolio committee from opposition parties argue she can only be removed through a motion of no confidence.
Makhosi Khoza. Picture: Gallo Images
Makhosi Khoza this morning questioned the credibility of ANC structures, and said state capture was accelerated by those very same structures.
Khoza was unceremoniously removed from her position as the chairperson of the portfolio committee on public service and administration by ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu a day after stating in parliament she would grill Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi.
Muthambi failed to appear before a committee meeting scheduled to take her to task for various allegations of nepotism, fruitless expenditure and financial impropriety.
The director-general of Muthambi’s department, Mashwahle Diphofa, has been relieved of his accounting officer duties in terms of Public Finance Management Act (PMFA).
All ANC members of the committee but Nyami Booi boycotted the meeting, and said they could not work with Khoza.
In a veiled attack on the ANC caucus and its latest decision to remove her, Khoza told the SABC that corruption was not a top-down enterprise, and rather its genesis could be traced to decisions made at party structures of the ruling party.
READ MORE: Makhosi Khoza fired from parliament job
“There are very many other people who have caused more harm to the ANC that myself, and action has not been taken against them,” Khoza said in a conversation with Morning Live’s Leanne Manas this morning.
This is consistent with Khoza’s insistence this week that the ANC caucus, through its chairperson, Jackson Mthembu, had no authority to remove her and that she remained a chairperson, as she had not resigned from the post.
“I was elected by the portfolio committee, not the ANC. However, I am an ANC deployee. In the absence of a formal process, I remain the chair because I have not resigned,” she was quoted in The Business Day.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that opposition parties in the portfolio committee are planning to challenge the decision to remove Khoza tomorrow without a motion of no confidence formally tabled and voted for by all the members.
According to The Business Day, Phumzile van Damme, the DA national spokesperson, and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, the EFF member of the committee, believe the only legitimate structure to remove Khoza from the chairperson position is the committee.
However, ANC caucus spokesperson Nonceba Mhlauli rebutted the claims and argued the announcement was just a formality because “chairpersons of committees are appointed by the majority party. Any changes in committees are done in the same way. There are no resignations”.
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