All mellow after the yellow

ALL's well that ends well for Thandile Sunduza, reluctant star of "the MP in the yellow dress" controversy.

She has been released from hospital following her collapse last week and made peace with the designer of the dress that earned her stinging criticism.

Sunduza said this week that the dress designer, Mihlali Gqada, sent her a bunch of flowers and an apology note while she was recovering in a Johannesburg private clinic.

The seven-months pregnant MP said she and her baby were doing well. She spent almost a week in hospital, where she was checked for low blood pressure and Braxton Hicks syndrome, better known as "false labour".

She collapsed at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Friday last week.

She denied claims last week that she had collapsed or fainted on a previous occasion during a committee meeting: "That never happened."

Sunduza said she had forgiven Gqada. She initially blamed the designer for the outfit's failings, saying it had arrived late and she had taken a pair of scissors to it in her office in an attempt to rescue it.

She was vilified when she wore it the following day. Critics on social media called it everything from a lemon to a caterpillar.

Some said she was the Oros man, or likened her to "the Oros man's wife".

She collapsed the following day at the height of a social media storm.

Gqada confirmed that she and Sunduza had made up, but she did not entertain further questions. "I don't have anything to say about it," she said before hanging up.

A day after the opening of parliament, Gqada disowned the dress, saying it was not her design. She said then that Sunduza wore only the petticoat of the dress delivered to her and had fiddled with its top.

Sunduza said: "I don't know what the big deal is about this dress."

She explained that the dress had arrived at 11pm the night before the opening of parliament.

She said Gqada and she discussed what she wanted in terms of the dress, but Gqada had not shown up for her final fitting appointment.

When she tried the dress on, it was too tight and the fringes that were supposed to drape over it "were falling off, even in my suitcase".

She said she had altered the dress, for which she had paid R2500, because she had no other option.

"I'm pregnant. I can't just walk into [a shop] and buy myself a dress at the last minute."