Cape Town — A row has blown up in Parliament over the attendance of National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete at the recent court appearance of former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Mbete yesterday fired back at the opposition Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) “unwarranted, ill-informed and politically immature” claims that her attendance showed she was soft on corruption.

Her tirade came after DA justice spokeswoman Sheila Camerer used a member’s statement to the assembly to repeat criticism by leader Tony Leon of Mbete and other senior African National Congress (ANC) leaders for attending Zuma’s appearance on Saturday at the Durban Regional Court to face corruption charges.

The DA leader said their attendance at the court case showed they were soft on corruption.

A statement from the office of the speaker in Cape Town said yesterday: “Firstly, it is well known Mbete is an elected member of the national executive committee of the ANC and a member of the national working committee of the ANC.

“She is also an elected member of the (national executive committee) and (national working committee) of the ANC Women’s League.

“As a leader of the people of SA, she has a political life to pursue informed by her own commitment to her organisation.

“Secondly, in SA, unlike in the Westminster system, the speaker is a member of a political party and therefore she must fulfil tasks as mandated by her organisation — the ANC. She is not accountable to the DA for either her political or private life,” the statement said.

“Thirdly, the stance of the speaker on issues of corruption is well known, therefore, the DA cannot claim and misconstrue her attendance at the court appearance of the deputy president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, as a sign that she is being soft on corruption. This is rather an unwarranted, ill-informed and politically immature attack on the speaker by the DA.”

Speaking to the National Assembly yesterday, Camerer said the attendance by Mbete and other leaders on Saturday was a mistake.

“It was completely inappropriate and by doing so they conveyed the unfortunate message that they dissociate themselves from the president’s praiseworthy action in firing Zuma when he was found by the courts to be involved in the (Schabir) Shaik corruption scandal.”

Mbete’s duty as speaker was to Parliament and not to the factional interests of the ANC, she said.

This was particularly so in the case of Zuma, because he resigned from Parliament before he could appear in front of the ethics committee, which may have found that he misled Parliament, she said.

“The decision by the speaker and sections of the ANC leadership to align themselves with Zuma, while at the same time claiming government is at the forefront of the fight against corruption, reveals yet again the fatal ambivalence that defines the ANC when it comes to the fight against fraud and protecting the independence of the judiciary.”

This earned Camerer a sharp rebuke from Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange, who said her contention that it harmed the judiciary’s independence was “absurd”.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and the Business Day.