DURBAN - Outcast ANC MP Makhosi Khoza has approached the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal looking for protection from the ANC Youth League, which has announced a series of protests against her for being hostile to President Jacob Zuma.
However, Khoza, who had made enemies among Zuma supporters, including the KZN national executive committee, has stressed that she would not vote for Zuma to keep his position, and instead she would vote to save the ANC’s reputation.
The ANCYL in eThekwini region said it was following its national leadership’s instruction to protest against Khoza wherever she goes.
Khoza has been ostracised by Zuma supporters, who alleged that she had declared her support for a secret ballot on a motion of no-confidence in the president.
Khoza said she had approached ANC KZN secretary Super Zuma asking to be protected from the ANCYL’s intimidating protests against her.
“He (Super Zuma) advised me that they (the PEC) are going to speak to the Youth League not to do that”.
Khoza’s complaint followed ANCYL eThekwini secretary Thinta Cibane’s Facebook post announcing that the league would picket at Durban’s Elangeni Maharani Hotel tomorrow night, where Khoza would be a guest speaker for the launch of a book, Making Africa Work. Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo would also deliver an address as the co-author.
Cibane’s post also indicated that another picket would take place at Khoza’s home in Hillcrest on Thursday.
“They must not disrupt me, they must not intimidate me, because I don’t intimidate them,” she said.
“They must not block me from participating in certain events, and they must not block me from going home.”
Khoza denied having said that she supported a secret vote on the Zuma motion.
“I said I am not going to vote for an amoral leader, I will vote for the survival of the ANC.
“I don’t understand. Why would somebody have a problem with me voting for the survival of the ANC, and the ANC’s moral conscience?” said Khoza.
Khoza wrote on her Facebook page: “So the ANC Youth League, eThekwini, is calling for my recall because I want the ANC to survive for another 200 years? Why do they want the ANC dead? Please help. I’m not getting it!”
Khoza said she hoped Super Zuma would stop the ANCYL from campaigning for her removal from Parliament.
Khoza, together with ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu and former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, had been identified by the ANCYL as possible “collaborators” with opposition parties.
The Constitutional Court this week reserved judgment on the UDM’s application to clarify whether parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete had the powers to call for a secret ballot in deciding Zuma’s fate.
It is believed that if the court votes in the UDM’s favour, a number of ANC MPs will vote against Zuma without fear of being recalled.