Democratic Alliance (DA) deputy chairperson hopeful Karabo Khakhau has withdrawn from contesting the party’s upcoming federal council leadership race, set to take place in April.
This is after she failed to pay the party’s monthly tithe of R4 250 in July. But Khakhau has insisted that she does not owe the DA a cent.
She said in July last year that she mistakenly missed a tithe payment after paying all tithes from January to June and continued to pay the August and September tithes.
“On the 14th of October, a day before payday, the Free State provincial director issued me with a letter of demand for the outstanding July tithe of R4 250,” she said.
“Within 24 hours, I 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.”
However, she said the DA Free State provincial executive committee took a decision to not grant her a letter of good financial standing and this decision was sustained by the DA’s federal executive.
“This is despite there being precedence of leaders who found themselves in similar situations in previous congresses but were afforded the opportunity to battle it out fairly in the polls.”
As a result, she has been disqualified from rolling out her vision of building structures and winning the future.
“When I began the race to become your 1st deputy chairperson of the federal council, I did so by highlighting the values I was raised with – faith, hard work, fairness, integrity and respect.
“These values are central to who I am and they guide how I engage with my community and my party. It is for this reason that I have always sought to be transparent, accountable and principled in all my actions.”
For her, the race was personal and it was a deliberate push-back against those who seek to abolish the existence of ancillary structures in the party, she said.
“As a product of ancillaries, I know first hand what value they hold. In ancillaries, leadership is cultivated, ideas are born and sharpened and communities are spoken to directly.
“It was a fight for the reimagination of our politics as a party – the reshaping of our organisational culture. Most Importantly, all I wanted to do was to help redesign how we organise ourselves and mobilise the Republic for success at the polls.”
She said that she still maintains that there is no political party in South Africa that will succeed in any election without the successful mobilisation of the majority of the country’s voter base, adding that the voter base is black, young and female.
“Thank you to all my supporters, silent and outright. I appreciate that all is not lost. Together, we can still fight from where we are to build structures and win the future.”
Khakhau said the race was personal for her and it was a deliberate push back against those who seek to abolish the existence of ancillary structures in the party
