Ditched ‘for being poor’: EFF MP Vusi Khoza’s dilemma

Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) MP Vusi Khoza, who failed to organise and pay for buses to the party’s 10th anniversary celebration in June, says if he should be removed for being poor, “so be it”.

The party has decided to recall 210 public representatives who failed to organise buses. The list includes members of parliament and provincial legislatures and councillors.

EFF leader Julius Malema called on the members to resign with immediate effect or face disciplinary action. Khoza, who is a former EFF KwaZulu-Natal chair, said he was not being able to deliver the buses as he did not have money.

“I represent poor people. I live in a rural village in Umgababa, I am surrounded by poor people and even the little that I get, I get to assist. I don’t have rich friends or a rich family and rich business people I can approach, therefore, I failed,” he said.

Khoza said despite all the challenges, he accepted the decision to relinquish his position. “If I should be punished for my poverty, so be it. All I can say is, I will respect the decision of the organisation, I didn’t protest when they put me in, so why should I protest if they recall me. Life goes on.

“It must be understood that it is a deployment. You serve at the behest of the party, and if the party decides to recall you, it is within their right. It’s even in the constitution of the EFF that the Central Command Team has a right to recall deployees.”

Khoza said people who would revolt on the decision didn’t know why they joined the EFF for.

“I’ve watched people come and go. It can’t be that it has affected me, I create drama. It would mean that I don’t know what I joined for.”

Khoza said, however, he would remain in the party.

“When I joined the EFF in 2013, there was not even a prospect of deployment but I was attracted by its policies, principles and mission. With or without a position, I remain a member of the EFF because I believe in its policies and freedom.”

Political analyst Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast said the decision could see some members leave the party.

“I suspect, and I cannot say on a large scale or on a small scale, that there’ll be people who will walk away from the EFF.

“The way the EFF does things is unusual, it is very much unconventional. Sometimes you get the sense the decisions are made by one person,” he said.

“One could argue that the EFF had set the bar high about the ruling party because the EFF has been lamenting that the ANC is falling short of getting the job done.

“It wants to come across as if it is above the ANC. No wonder it has decided to recall members who have not carried off the party mandate. On the other hand, one can argue that this is an expression of undemocratic tendencies because the question is: ‘who made the decision?’

“No wonder there’s been a discussion about whether it is the time to have someone like Floyd [Shivambu, EFF deputy president] replacing Malema.”

Another political analyst Prof Sipho Seepe said, made publicly, the decision was “an embarrassment that you feel, and you do not emerge from that very happy”.

He added: “The leadership can be excused to say there should be consequences to noncompliance to its commitments.”