After a turbulent political week where she locked horns with the national leadership of her party, Dr Makhosi Khoza, the senior councillor of ActionSA in eThekwini Municipality, says she won’t vacate her position.
Khoza says she has only vacated her position as the chairperson of ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal.
The provincial chairperson position has since been given to Musa Khubeka, who will hold it on an interim basis.
When Khoza’s resignation was first announced on December 23 last year, it was said she would direct all her energy toward fighting corruption in eThekwini Municipality using her position as the chairperson of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).
“The engagements held came to the view that the MPAC was not anticipated or planned for, but is an extremely important role both for the residents of eThekwini and ActionSA. It represents the opportunity to see the first real fight against wrongdoing in eThekwini.
“It was the mutual concern of myself and Dr Khoza this responsibility is not something that can be reasonably provided by a provincial chairperson with the duties of establishing structures throughout a province like KwaZulu-Natal before the 2024 national and provincial elections,” said ActionSA president Herman Mashaba at that time.
It later turned out that there was more than meets the eye, as Khoza then claimed she had been forced out by the national leadership. Mashaba denied the claims, saying Khoza requested to vacate her provincial position.
Mashaba has even made available a letter to the public which was written by Khoza saying she wants to vacate her position as she was not remunerated for it and she wants time with her family.
Despite all this, the nomadic Khoza, whose political career has taken her to the ANC, ADeC and Outa, said she would stay on.
“(I resigned as) KZN chairperson only,” she told Independent Media.
It was also alleged that the fallout between Khoza and the national leadership of ActionSA was because they believe that she had landed the MPAC position with the help of the ANC, a party Mashaba has always been clear that they would never work with.
The allegations gained traction when on Thursday last week, Nicole Graham, the leader of the DA’s caucus in eThekwini Municipality, alleged that there was no doubt in her mind that Khoza had voted for the ANC in November in exchange for being elected as the MPAC chair.
“This is a commonly held view among the main opposition leaders. The ANC even seconded her nomination, for heaven’s sake. She is fooling no one. Interestingly, Khoza doesn’t seem to deny anywhere that she voted for the ANC. She claims that she didn’t collude with them, but has not directly said ’No, we did not vote for Mxolisi Kaunda and PG (Philani Godfrey) Mavundla.’ The numbers show four ‘missing’ votes,” Graham tweeted.
Khoza dismissed Graham’s comments, saying she did not account to the DA.
“I’m not answerable to the DA. I joined ActionSA. I cannot respond Nicole Graham’s political hallucinations,” Khoza said.
Political Bureau