A senior EFF MP who was one of the 428 party public representatives who failed to bus in supporters to the party's 10th-anniversary celebrations at the FNB Stadium, said he was let down by potential donors and accepted he could be removed from Parliament as a result.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Vusi Khoza, who is a former KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of the party, was the most senior among four MPs, seven MPLs and 417 councillors who failed to provide transport for their constituents for the EFF 10th-anniversary celebrations.
MPs from outside Gauteng were required to provide 20 buses, MPLs 10 buses and councillors one bus each.
EFF leader Julius Malema said during a press conference last week that he would “just resign” if he was one of the 428 public representatives who failed to organise transport for party members, but also said there would be an internal process for those representatives who let down the party.
Khoza, who spoke to IOL on Sunday, said Malema’s suggestion was an opinion, not an instruction.
He said the EFF was rightly holding them accountable and responsible for not following through with a Central Command Team (CCT) order in February, that they all agreed to and never protested.
“We are waiting to be called where we can go and explain ourselves to the organisation one by one. Once the process has been completed, the organisation can decide what must happen to each of us,” Khoza said.
“There is nothing wrong that the organisation has done, there has to be consequences and we are in this mess as a country because of no consequence management.”
Khoza said he would accept whatever outcome the party came up with and said he had obeyed by the party instruction not to attend the anniversary celebrations.
“I felt the pain of not being able to attend the celebrations, but I accept that I do not deserve to be there because I dropped the ball,” said Khoza.
Khoza said he failed to deliver on the buses as he was let down by potential donors he had spoken to, who pulled out at the eleventh hour.
He said quotes for buses were between R36,000 (in February) and R40,000 (June) each. This would have cost up to R800,000 in his case.
“This is not an excuse, but perhaps in the final analysis, I should have had a Plan A, B and C,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malema said last week that the EFF was not a home for “deadwood” and “lazy” public representatives, saying MPs, MPLs and councillors would be held accountable for not contributing to the party.
Malema called on the 400 councillors, MPLs and MPs, who failed to bus supporters into the 10th-anniversary celebrations of the party at the FNB Stadium to “just resign”.
Almost 100,000 EFF supporters painted the FNB Stadium in Joburg in a sea of red recently.
The full list of MPS, MPLs and councillors can be found here.
Khoza helped oversee massive EFF growth in the KZN province when the red berets quadrupled its support in KZN from under 70,000 votes in the 2014 general elections, to over 300,000 at the last general elections in 2019.
IOL