Fierce critic and recently resigned member of a "corrupt and alien" ANC, Makhosi Khoza, has accused the party's spokesperson Zizi Kodwa of being a "pathological liar".
Khoza, who on Thursday announced she had quit the party after extensive deliberation, lambasted Kodwa during a live broadcast of Morning Live on Friday. This followed his response to Khoza's resignation on Thursday in which he claimed the party had not received a letter nor reasons for her resignation, according to eNCA.
The party's spokesperson reiterated this position during the interview with Morning Live's Leanne Manas during which Khoza, a fierce critic of a "dead ANC", broke into laughter repeatedly as Kodwa was speaking. He said Khoza as a member of an ANC branch, first and foremost, was required to submit her resignation to the branch which she did not do.
Khoza fired back, saying she had indeed submitted her resignation letter with reasons, including to the secretary-general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe. In response, Kodwa implied the outspoken former ANC MP had gotten too big for her boots.
"There's nobody who resigns at Luthuli House, it is not a structure. You join the ANC at a branch level. Nobody resigns with Gwede. You resign at the branch which you have joined voluntarily," he said.
'How do I resign at a branch that doesn't even recognise me?'
Khoza, again chuckling while Kodwa spoke, said he was lying.
"Comrade Zizi, I'm so sorry to say it but I think you're a pathological liar. I think you feel uncomfortable with the truth. The reason I'm saying this is because when the court nullified the PEC in KwaZulu-Natal, that means the branch they had established was declared null and void. The only place I could tender my resignation was at national level".
Khoza went on to say she had never even received confirmation of her membership at branch level, claiming the branch too is not even functional.
"To whom should I have resigned? My chairperson who is out on bail? What do I do?" she asked rhetorically.
"How can I resign from a branch that doesn't want to give me my membership. Zizi Kodwa is telling me I'm some delusional woman. Excuse my Comrade Zizi, come back to your senses. Don't be a conveyer belt, man. Think!," she exclaimed.
'Organisation on a downward spiral'
Khoza told Manas earlier in the interview she was "relieved" at the decision she finally took, adding it was not an easy decision to "leave your own home". "I have spent more time in the ANC than I spent with my biological parents," she said.
She said it wasn't just a single event that led her to believe the ANC is not capable of self-correction, but a number of crises that had been "piling up".
"The organisation is evidently on a downward spiral, but comrades are so much in such denial. They keep saying address the issues within [the organisation] as if it's easy. They are so intolerant of divergent views."
She also took a swipe at Kodwa's comments on Thursday that her "handlers" wanted her to destroy the ANC from within.
"Even Zizi Kodwa has been saying I'm being handled by somebody. I hope he's going to say today's who is handling me," she said.
Kodwa did not respond to this plea, instead going on to say that she had "long [ago] left the ANC". The party took objection not to her public pronouncements, but her conduct "which is against the moral values and organisational discipline of the ANC," he said.
"The ANC remains a democratic organisation and it allows a plurality of views among its members," he said, to which Khoza can be heard chuckling softly again in the background.
I'm very disappointed with Zizi Kodwa. I don't think he understands the ANC constitution. The oath you take when you join the ANC says 'I am joining the ANC voluntarily, not for material gain or motivated by personal gain, but we have seen consistently leaders in the ANC using their positions to benefit themselves personally and their families and connections.Dr Makhosi Khoza
"Comrade Zizi Kodwa is telling me that it is wrong for me to educate... has he actually taken time to read the duties of the member of the ANC? It is my duty as a member to educate members of the public about the policy of the ANC. Corruption is not a policy of the ANC," she said.
'I won't return until corruption is taken seriously.'
The former ANC MP made it clear following her resignation speech that speculation over her potentially joining the DA was unequivocally false, as were rumours she would start her own political party.
Nevertheless, she did not rule out the idea altogether, saying for now she needed "time to reflect".
She also did not rule out ever returning to the ANC, stating resolutely that unless the party started taking corruption seriously and firing those implicated, she would not return.
Watch the full interview on SABC2's Morning Live above.