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ANC MPs boycott meeting chaired by Makhosi Khoza

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Dr Makhosi Khoza. Picture: Lindile Mbontsi
Dr Makhosi Khoza. Picture: Lindile Mbontsi

“Ill-disciplined!” This is how ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu characterised the boycott of a parliamentary meeting by ANC MPs who objected to being led by the outspoken Makhosi Khoza.

For the first time since the dawn of democracy, ANC MPs boycotted a meeting of a parliamentary committee citing an alleged breach of the party’s constitution by one of their comrades as a reason for absconding from their taxpayer-funded jobs.

In a letter addressed to Mthembu and leaked to the media, five ANC MPs who are members of the portfolio committee on public service and administration registered “strong objection” to being led by Khoza as the chairperson of the [parliamentary] committee and member for the ANC study group because they felt she had violated an ANC rule.

“Furthermore, we as the study group members have taken the decision to suspend all study group and portfolio committee meetings until the conduct of Dr M Khoza is addressed,” they wrote.

The five MPs – Mervyn Dirks, Sizani Dlamini-Dubazana, Regina Lesoma, Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen and Madala Ntombela – indeed stayed away from the meeting which started shortly after 2pm on Tuesday and which was meant to receive quarterly reports from three state entities that fall under the department of public service and administration.

Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi was also expected to attend the meeting to explain the alleged misuse of public funds by allegedly flying scores of family members and friends to Cape Town for her budget speech at taxpayers’ expense, and also explain this week’s revelations that she was hiring family, friends and neighbours without advertising the positions in her ministry.

Muthambi was a no-show and did not even bother to tender an apology for her absence. This despite attending a meeting of the ANC’s study group in the parliamentary precinct a few hours earlier.

Despite the absence of the ANC MPs at the meeting, the 11-member committee reached a quorum and could proceed with its work thanks to the attendance of Khoza, one other ANC MP, the veteran parliamentarian Nyami Booi, as well as DA, EFF and IFP MPs.

ANC sources told City Press that in the study group meeting – a meeting where the ANC discusses political strategy ahead of parliamentary meetings – ANC MPs attacked Khoza and called for her head. “They threw everything at her but a charge sheet,” said one source. Booi allegedly objected to how Khoza was treated and attended the meeting to show his support.

Approached for comment after the committee meeting, Khoza refused to discuss what had happened at the ANC meeting or whether she was aware her comrades would boycott the parliamentary meeting because they objected to her presence. She only confirmed that she attended a meeting and that Muthambi was present in it.

The portfolio committee listened to a presentation from the Public Service Commission on its fourth quarter performance but could not discuss the entity’s finances due to Muthambi and DPSA director-general Mashwahle Diphofa’s absence and had to adjourn. For this, MPs want both Muthambi and Diphofa to pay from their own pockets for the costs of the botched meeting.

The duo will also be subpoenaed to account for missing Tuesday’s meeting without submitting an apology, alongside the heads of the Centre for Public Service Innovation and the National School of Government who also did not attend the meeting.

In a statement, Mthembu revealed that he had responded to the study group’s letter stating that study groups do not have the authority to suspend any work they are deployed to do as ANC deployees in Parliament.

“This is inclusive of programmes of the study group and portfolio committee meetings. The suspension of any of these meetings and/or failure to attend meetings individually and collectively constitutes ill-discipline action on their part.”

Mthembu said he had made it very clear that all ANC members were expected to attend the portfolio committee meeting and the decision to boycott the committee meeting amounted to gross ill-discipline. “Whatever their grievance, real or imagined in relation to the chairperson of the committee, is a matter to be dealt with by the organisation which has deployed all of us. The matter of Dr Makhosi Khoza is being dealt with at an organisational level through the constitutional processes of the organisation,” said Mthembu.

The MPs will be referred to the ANC caucus’ disciplinary committee.

The DA said it would be referring Muthambi and the ANC members who boycotted Tuesday’s meeting to the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests for investigation.

The EFF said the developments were clear evidence that ANC MPs wanted to deliberately collapse the work of Parliament to hold corrupt individuals accountable.

“Their hope was that the meeting would not quorate and thus be unable to proceed and take binding decisions,” said the EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.

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