The death of Sindiso Magaqa woke me up, says Makhosi Khoza

A drained former ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza has had enough of belonging to a ‘sexist, misogynistic and abusive ruling party’ – and as a mother, needed to protect her children by deciding to quit the organisation.

Khoza, in a shock announcement yesterday, said she could no longer be part of a corrupt and “alien” ANC, disguised by a brand that countless noble souls sacrificed their lives to build.

The former MP has been under the spotlight following death threats she received for speaking out against President Jacob Zuma and the condition of the party.

Speaking to The Citizen, she divulged that while the strain she experienced in the organisation had been accumulating for some time, the last straw leading to her exit was when her children were targeted.

“It has been an accumulation of things – but when they started going to my children and telling my son I was party to killing my husband, I realised they were breaking not just me, but they were breaking my children too,” Khoza said.

“Even the apartheid state never did that to me. They never went to my parents.”

Khoza was to have undergone a disciplinary hearing next month on two charges of ill-discipline for bringing the party into disrepute. This followed a powerful speech she gave against Zuma at a recent civil society conference on state capture and the future of South Africa.

Following her resignation, the ANC accused Khoza of being a coward by “running away” from the hearing, being a media darling and a person who had ambitions to be made a minister and was not.

But while citing recent political killings, Khoza said she realised it was also more dangerous to be in the ANC than outside of it. She referred to the killing of former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa – who Economic Freedom Fighters leader and once ANCYL president Julius Malema said was considering joining his party.

“The death of Sindiso woke me up. I then realised it was more dangerous to be in the ANC than out of it. If Sindiso went to Malema, he would have been around today. I was even terrified to go to my office in parliament – I didn’t know what would be in there. I couldn’t go to the canteen or even a restaurant. My children kept saying, ‘Why are you still in ANC? We don’t get it. They are breaking you piece by piece.’ And I had to listen to my kids.”

Khoza said that, speaking as a woman, she found the party to be chauvinistically oppressive.

“They want me to tolerate this abuse as an intellectual woman? They would never entertain the substance of what you are arguing in meetings. I can’t allow myself to be abused by this chauvinistic organisation.

“If I tolerate this abuse, what message am I sending to women in South Africa? I need South African women to stand up and be able to walk away – I want women to have enough courage to say, ‘Look, she was able to walk away from the abuse.’”

Whatever the ANC thought of her was water off her back, she said.

“I really don’t care what they have to say and I don’t expect them to praise me.”

Khoza further said she would channel her energies into stamping out corruption by working with civil society and religious organisations.

“The ANC absolutely made me – there is no question – but not this corrupt one. I know Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Chief Albert Luthuli will be smiling at me wherever they are.” – yadhanaj@citizen.co.za