ANC MPs on Tuesday afternoon boycotted a meeting of the public service and administration committee chaired by Makhosi Khoza, despite the ANC in Parliament telling Business Day its MPs would attend.
According to reports, only one ANC MP has pitched to the committee meeting -- Nyami Booi -- in which public service minister Faith Muthambiwas expected to respond to allegations she spent close to R500 000 flying 30 people to Cape Town for her budget vote speech in May.
In a letter shared with HuffPost SA by a source in Parliament, ANC members of the study group on public service and administration objected to Makhosi Khoza as chairperson of the portfolio committee, saying she had violated the ANC's constitution.
All study groups and portfolio committee meetings would be "suspended... until the conduct of Dr. M. Khoza is addressed", it said.
Despite the absence of ANC MPs, with the exception of Booi, chair of committees Cedrick Frolick had given Khoza permission to continue with the meeting. The lone MP is reported to have said to Khoza, "You are the chair. You chair today, you chair tomorrow. There is no change of leadership."
The ANC's assurance that its members would be present came after MPs unsympathetic to Khoza, an outspoken critic of the party's perceived decline under President Jacob Zuma, threatened to boycott the sitting in light of Khoza's scathing and recurrent assessments of the party's ethical standing.
She consequently was served with charges relating to 'ill-discipline' lodged by the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. Following the adjournment of the meeting, Khoza said the boycott "had everything to do with the vote of no confidence" according to reports.
She has been vocal about her support for the motion to remove President Jacob Zuma on 8 August - along with ANC MPs including Mondli Gungubele, Derek Hanekom and Pravin Gordhan - which was ultimately defeated in parliament .
According to City Press reporter Andisiwe Makinana, the committee in parliament before adjourning resolved to recuperate money spent on the futile meeting from Muthambi and the director-general in the Department of Public Service and Administration Mashwahle Diphofa.
ANC parliamentary spokeswoman Nonceba Mhlauli was unreachable for comment.
...this is a developing story.