Khoza: KZN ANC does not have authority to discipline me

Defiant ANC MP Makhosi Khoza has hit out at the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive of the party, saying its leaders are bullies who have no jurisdiction to discipline her for calling on President Jacob Zuma to step down.

Khoza yesterday posted a heated letter, which she said had been delivered to KwaZulu-Natal ANC executive council member and housing MEC Ravi Pillay, on her upcoming disciplinary hearing, saying the party’s provincial executive “has no requisite authority to institute disciplinary proceedings” against her for publicly calling on Zuma to step down in previous Facebook posts.

Khoza was charged by the ANC for misconduct and bringing the party into disrepute following her repeated public calls for Zuma to vacate his office.

She said the party’s move to charge her went against the ANC’s constitution, which states that the party should not use disciplinary proceeding to stifle debate among its members.

“I understood my public statements, either on Facebook postings or public platforms, to be statements shared in pursuit of exercising my basic democratic right to freedom of expression. In any event, the call for the resignation of the President of the Republic is a public debate at national level, which is routinely debated by members of the ANC and the public at large,” said Khoza.

Khoza also wrote that only the ANC’s national disciplinary committee should preside over her hearing given that her statements were made on public platforms and not in her home province.

“It is common cause that all the Facebook postings at issue were written outside the jurisdiction of KZN province. If the contents of the said postings are believed to constitute either a violation or misconduct, it follows that the alleged violation or misconduct took place outside the jurisdiction of KZN province,” she said.

In a statement preceding the letter to Pillay, Khoza accused the provincial leadership of being bullies that were repressive towards women.

“We are tired of these bullies who do not understand the very instrument they are using to charge me, the ANC constitution … There is a growing tendency to victimise women, because they assume we are weak and easily intimidated. They have entered the wrong movie,” she said. – news@citizen.co.za