Former EFF KwaZulu-Natal provincial chairperson Vusi Khoza is not chewing sour grapes after being banned from attending the party’s much talked about 10th anniversary rally at FNB Stadium last Saturday.
Khoza was the most well-known of the more than 400 red-beret public representatives who watched the massive rally on television after failing to arrange 20 buses for his constituency to attend the event.
He told the Sunday World that those who had promised to donate money for his transportation needs had let him down.
The party had demanded that its public representatives organise and pay for transportation out of their own pockets, which included raising funds from businesses in their localities.
Khoza said he had several people commit that they would contribute to his kitty, only to drop him at the last minute.
By the time he realised he had been living on false promises, it was too late to fork out from his own pocket to fund 20 buses, which would have cost him thousands of rands.
Khoza said there was no bad blood between him and the party’s top brass, which enforced the decision, saying the action was meant to instill discipline in the party.
“I am not aggrieved at all; there must be consequences when a resolution to task people has been taken and some of us failed to fulfill it. It is an appropriate reprimand. The EFF cannot afford to allow a lack of discipline; that would be the end of it,” said Khoza.
“At the beginning, when the resolution was taken, one began to fundraise by engaging people I thought would be able to assist. People made commitments but ended up not seeing those promises come to fruition. I was hopeful until the last minute when I realised I was problematising.
“By that time, it was too late, and there was nothing one could do to salvage the situation. Mine was very bad because, out of the 20 buses I was expected to provide, I could not organise even one. Therefore, it is understandable when the organisation takes steps.”
According to Khoza, the demand for public representatives to organise transport for EFF events is a sound one since the party is funded internally by its own members.
Khoza and others are now at risk of being removed from their jobs in the national assembly, provincial legislatures, and municipal councils after party leader Julius Malema warned that “I would resign if I were them”, saying the party would summon all of them individually to state their cases.
“We serve at the behest of the organisation, and for whatever reason, the organisation can decide you are not fit for purpose and remove you. It is nothing personal. Deployment works like that. It is here today and gone tomorrow,” said Khoza.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa.
