Khoza ‘not deterred’ by her removal from parliament job

Outspoken ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza is not deterred by the ANC’s decision to fire her as chairperson of the portfolio committee on public service and administration.

“I am determined, I am fine. The ANC has decided, it has made its choices,” Khoza told The Citizen yesterday.

The irate MP said it was clear that the ANC had decided to side with President Jacob Zuma, Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi and those who did not want her in the party.

Khoza was reacting to yesterday’s move to axe her as chairperson of the committee, just days after she asked Muthambi to account for flying 30 people, including members of her family and friends, to attend her department’s budget vote in parliament earlier this year.

The trip cost R500 000 and Khoza and her committee members demanded that Muthambi account for the expenditure.

The committee also subpoenaed Muthambi and department officials to attend a meeting next week and said they should pay for the cost of last Tuesday’s sitting, which they failed to attend.

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said he had been instructed by Luthuli House to remove Khoza as chairperson of the portfolio committee on public service and administration, monitoring and evaluation.

This as the party leadership prepares to purge MPs who oppose Zuma and who voted in favour of the recent no-confidence vote against the president.

The party was quick to act against the MP, even before it executed its undertaking to discipline its five MPs who boycotted Khoza’s committee meeting this week.

The five ANC MPs – Mervyn Dirks, Sizani Dlamini-Dubazana, Regina Lesoma, Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen and Madala Ntombela – stayed away from the meeting in protest at Khoza.

They objected to her call for Zuma to step down and for her allegedly voting in favour of the no-confidence motion in Zuma. Mthembu cited an “irretrievable” breakdown of relations between Khoza and ANC members of her committee.

He said the disciplinary action against MPs was already under way. According to Mthembu, Khoza’s continued public attacks had led to her alienating ANC MPs, including those in her committee.