Raenette Taljaard, a former researcher who became one of the DA’s most admired MPs, has announced that she will leave Parliament at the end of the year.

Taljaard said she had resigned “for private reasons” and would not be drawn on reports that she had clashed with other DA caucus members on key policy issues and had been critical of party leader Tony Leon’s combative style of opposition.

Leon, whose leadership style has been criticised by a faction in the party, said he and Taljaard had planned to announce her departure after the DA’s annual conference later this month, but that news of her decision had been leaked.

He said she had “filled each of her posts with great distinction, intelligence and courage”.

Taljaard, who studied finance at the London School of Economics and at Yale in the US, is the party’s spokesman on finance. Though her frequent questions have appeared to sometimes irritate Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, a source in the National Treasury said the minister and his officials valued her contribution and looked forward to her input in Budget debates.

Now 31, Taljaard was the youngest MP when, during President Thabo Mbeki’s first term as President, she played a crucial role in the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry into the arms deal.

She was at the centre of a political storm this week when Speaker Baleka Mbete refused to allow her to question Deputy President Jacob Zuma about evidence in the Schabir Shaik trial, which appeared to contradict earlier answers Zuma had given in Parliament.

With acknowledgements to Brendan Boyle and the Sunday Times.

* Really?, but she did study law and apparently has at least one master's degree in law.