BOYCOTT OF PSA PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE MEETING CONSTITUTES ILL-DISCIPLINE
15 August 2017
The Office of the ANC Chief Whip received a letter from members of the ANC Study Group on Public Service and Administration (PSA) stating that they have decided to suspend all study group and portfolio committee meetings until their grievance in relation to the committee chairperson, ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza, who they believe has bridged ANC discipline, has been addressed. This letter has since been leaked to various media houses.
The ANC Chief Whip has responded to the study group stating that study groups do not have the authority to suspect 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.
The ANC Chief Whip made it very clear that all ANC members were expected to attend today’s portfolio committee meeting on Public Service and Administration. Therefore the decision to boycott today’s portfolio committee meeting by some members amount 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. We therefore condemn today’s behaviour with utmost contempt.