Durban – Outspoken African National Congress (ANC) MP Makhosi Khoza is trying to negotiate with the party to have the time of her disciplinary hearing on Sunday moved for fear she will be “gunned down” on her way to the proceedings.
Speaking to the African News Agency on Friday, Khoza said the ANC was being “extremely unreasonable” in expecting her to attend her disciplinary at 3pm on Sunday.
According to the official charge sheet sent to Khoza in July, the hearing was set to start at 9am at the party’s headquarters in Durban. Provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli told ANA on Friday that he was “not sure about the actual time but disciplinary committee meetings usually start at 09h00”.
“Who goes to a hearing on Sunday? Who goes to a hearing at 3pm on a Sunday?” Khoza asked.
“I am fighting with them over time. I wrote to [ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe] and he said he couldn’t help me. I have written to KZN [leadership] and they said 3pm, they don’t want to change it,” she said.
“I am worried about safety issues in KZN; Magaqa is not even buried yet,” she said, referring to former ANC youth league secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa who died on Monday, ostensibly from wounds sustained when he was shot multiple times in uMzimkhulu in July in what the party called an assassination attempt. He was a PR councillor at the time.
According to Khoza, there was “a pattern of people getting gunned down” in the province when returning from meetings. She said that if the hearing took place at 3pm the party was increasing the chance of her being “gunned down”. “When I leave there it will be dark. That will put my life in even more danger,” she said.
Khoza said she did have private security but would not say how many bodyguards would accompany her. “But what is my private security to those guys?” she said. She said she would attend the hearing but was hoping for a more reasonable time.
Speaking to ANA on Friday, ANC KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson, Mdumiseni Ntuli, said Khoza would have to plead her case before provincial disciplinary committee head Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu and members Arthur Zwane, Phumlile Zulu, Mxolisi Kaunda and Important Mkhize. Evidence leaders would include Makhosini Nkosi and Ravi Pillay.
Ntuli said that the entire process “should not last beyond 30 days unless there are some unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances”.
Khoza was charged in July for, amongst other things, ill discipline, failing to comply with ANC policy, provoking division and bringing the party into disrepute, with all but one of these relating to posts she made on her Facebook account.
Khoza has been a fierce critic of Jacob Zuma’s fitness as president and has lambasted the party for losing its moral compass and being riddled with corruption. She has been vocal about receiving death threats because of her stance and has claimed the lives of her children have also been threatened.
In August, Khoza was fired from her position as chairperson of the portfolio committee on public service and administration. A press release at the time from chief whip Jackson Mthembu said there was an irretrievable breakdown of trust as Khoza had persisted in public attacks on the ANC leadership and members of the ANC caucus.
The party redeployed Khoza to the portfolio committee on economic development.