ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba (L) with the party’s fired senior leader, Dr Makhosi Khoza. Picture: Supplied
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba was apparently shocked to learn that the party’s now-fired senior leader, Makhosi Khoza, was in communication with dismissed party members who were allegedly plotting against him.
That’s according to ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont who revealed on Tuesday that Mashaba couldn’t understand why Khoza, as one of the founding members of the party, 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 a manner that she did.
“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,” Beaumont said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.
ActionSA on Tuesday morning announced that 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.
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However, taking to Facebook soon after the announcement was made, Khoza disputed that she had received any communication from ActionSA about the termination of her membership.
This followed a disciplinary inquiry into her conduct following a series of “public outbursts” in January.
The former ActionSA KwaZulu-Natal leader was charged with bringing the party into disrepute, deliberately acting in a way that negatively impacts the organisation and acting in a manner that caused disunity in the party.
Beaumont said evidence before the disciplinary panel showed that 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 Johannesburg Council Chamber by a group of disgruntled ActionSA members, who could be heard chanting 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 that ActionSA did not inform her of her dismal from the party, adding that 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 that ActionSA was in any way facing internal instability or headed for trouble.
He said unlike other new parties that had struggled to stay intact, ActionSA was using its internal institutions to deal with unruly members.
“The instability that 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 [and] 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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