Now retired from national politics, former ANC MP and founder of the African Demoratic Change (ADeC) party, Makhosi Khoza, is plotting a move to local government leadership and is in the process of publishing three textbooks focusing on the study of African languages.
In an interview with HuffPost, Khoza opened up about her reasons for quitting politics five months into forming her own political party. She also spoke about her plans going forward.
Khoza left the ANC in September last year while facing disciplinary action for criticising former president Jacob Zuma's presidency and speaking out about corruption in the party. She formed ADeC a short while later - a party started to provide a common platform for various civil society organisations.
Why the departure from politics?
"I also have to take stock of what I am doing and If I feel what I am doing is not going to be adding that much impact on society, and is not as fulfilling to me as a person. I think I do have a right to review my decision of starting a political party," she said.
"That organisation [ADeC] was bringing together smaller organisations. Now that they have the branch of ADeC, they can take it over to the next level. I don't think I would be making as much impact as the impact I would like to make in other areas of life such as local government and the promotion of African language. It is more important right now rather than trying to pursue going to Parliament where I'm not sure if my voice is going to be making any difference."
Khoza said she does not regret leaving the ANC.
"I have no regrets for having left the ANC and I still believe there is a space for ADeC. However, that space is not necessarily a space that Makhosi wants to lead. The reality is that if I had stayed on with the ANC I would be dead by now...
"If I did stay with the ANC, even now, if I were to go back I would end up in a situation probably similar to what I went through because there are people in the leadership that... have questionable moral and ethical credentials," she said.
"I felt strongly that I needed to earn my voice and defy the ANC because I felt that we were actually leading the country into a ditch. And now that you have Cyril, he's trying to do his best, of course, he has his own people around him, some people that I would not [have around me].
What now for Makhosi Khoza?
"I think it's going to make more sense if my pursuit is local government and education. And that pursuit is going to be done on an apolitcal platform because I don't want to be clouded when I actually start doing my work... The intention here is to make an impact and not making noises in Parliament," Khoza said.
Khoza is releasing a set of three books later this month which focuses on her newly developed theory around studying African languages, especially isiZulu. She also announced a possible move into local government leadership.
"I may be taking up a position that would allow me to operate in the space of local government."
"The way in which we study African languages is so complicated, they just mess you up. You end up being too discouraged to learn it because it is not studied on a proper system, it's not structured correctly. I thought I could make my contribution in that space. You cannot speak about human dignity if we are condemning 79 percent of the population," she said.
"I may be taking up a position that would allow me to operate in the space of local government. I can't tell you right now because we are actually finalising it... I have so much passion for local government. We neglected that space of local government for a very long time."
Explaining her theory, Khoza said she has developed a new alphabetical order for the IsiZulu language
"This language has incredible numerical logic. You can't study isiZulu without using tables... I'm actually producing three publications. One is a textbook that is 500 pages that is going to be launched by Cambridge University. The second publication is an isiZulu dictionary. The final one is a textbook for the mathematics of IsiZulu," she said.
Khoza closed the interview by saying: "I don't have to be in Parliament to be significant".