Parliament's presiding officers to discuss Makhosi Khoza death threats

Parliament's presiding officers‚ Baleka Mbete and Thandi Modise‚ will meet to discuss the death threats against ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza.

Khoza has spoken out after receiving several death threats and calls to resign following a Facebook post she wrote in which she criticised the morality of the ANC leadership last month.

The post urged the ANC leadership to listen to the concerns expressed by the public about the state of the ruling party.

Over the past few weeks‚ the ANC Youth League has called for her axing and threatened to picket outside her Durban home.

• ANCYL told not to protest outside the house of one of their own MPsDefiant ANC MP Makhosi Khoza said on Tuesday that she has been promised that the eThekwini ANC Youth League will not be protesting outside her house – but she is bracing for the worse anyway. 

Khoza who has said she fears for her children's lives‚ had her address circulated on social media but the youth league denied any involvement in this.

She has approached both the ANC and Parliament for assistance.

Spokesman for Parliament Moloto Mothapo said on Monday that Speaker Mbete would meet with chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Modise to discuss the matter.

• MPs will back Zuma, then decide his fateANC MPs will defend President Jacob Zuma during the no-confidence vote, but they want the party's parliamentary structure to come up with its own resolution on his fate. 

"The Speaker would obviously be appraised of the matter through such interaction and possibly pronounce. Therefore‚ we'd rather not preempt such engagement at this stage‚" he said.

Attempts to reach ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa‚ ANC communications manager Khusela Sangoni and spokesperson for the party in parliament Nonceba Mhlauli for comment were unsuccessful.

This is not the first time Khoza‚ who became a well-known public face after chairing the committee tasked with finding the new public protector‚ has received death threats. She also received threats earlier this year after an oversight visit to an Mpumalanga hospital with the public service and administration committee‚ which she chairs.

Khoza‚ a former United Democratic Front member also had her house burned down in the 1980s and was arrested for her activism.

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE