DA MP and national spokesperson Karabo Khakhau has been disqualified from the party’s leadership race after it was found that she owed just over R4,000 in party tithes.
Citing “a forced withdrawal” over the issue, Khakhau said in a statement to party members that she was no longer running for the position of deputy chair of the DA federal council.
The DA is scheduled to hold its elective national congress next month at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
“It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you of my forced withdrawal from the deputy chairperson of the federal council leadership race,” Khakhau’s statement said.
“I, in July last year, mistakenly missed payment. I had paid all my tithes from January to June and continued to pay my August and September tithes.
“On October 14, a day before payday, the Free State provincial director issued me with a letter of demand [for] the outstanding July tithe of R4,250.
I maintain there is no party in RSA that will succeed in any election without the successful mobilisation of the majority of this country’s voter base. That voter base is black, young and female
— Karabo Khakhau, DA MP and national spokesperson
“I, within 24 hours, paid R8,500 for the outstanding July tithe and my October tithe. I continued to pay all my monthly tithes to date.
“I do not owe the DA a cent.”
MPs pay monthly tithes to their respective parties as part of fundraising measures.
Khakhau, who serves on parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education, said in her internal memo that the DA Free State provincial executive committee declined to grant her “a letter of good financial standing” despite the fact that she had settled her outstanding fees.
“And this decision was sustained by the DA’s FedEx [federal executive]. This despite there being precedent of leaders who found themselves in similar situations in previous congresses but were afforded the opportunity to battle it out fairly in the polls. Some successful incumbents.”
Khakhau warned that the DA would not succeed in a national election without the support of young black voters.
“I maintain there is no party in RSA that will succeed in any election without the successful mobilisation of the majority of this country’s voter base. That voter base is black, young and female.”
Khakhau was running for the deputy federal council chair position against deputy minister of water & sanitation Sello Seitlholo, deputy speaker of the National Assembly Annelie Lotriet, and Western Cape provincial parliament member Thomas Walters.
With just three weeks to go until the federal congress, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis remains uncontested as the candidate to succeed John Steenhuisen as party leader.
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