ANC wins with low blows

The National Assembly debate on the motion of no confidence in Speaker Baleka Mbete quickly degenerated into mud-slinging yesterday.

ANC MP Bertha Mabe told Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema that he was "nothing but a shame to his family" - then accused DA parliamentary leader Musi Maimane of being a moruti wa tsotsi (township slang for a fraudulent preacher) .

Maimane is a pastor and has a master's degree in theology.

The ANC easily defeated the motion after the opposition MPs walked out in protest and disgust.

The result was 234 votes against the motion of no confidence; none in favour.

Hundreds of ANC and ANC Women's League supporters were bused in from Cape Town townships to attend the sitting.

At one point during the debate Malema objected to ANC supporters applauding, and other EFF MPs complained that they "felt intimidated by the rented crowd".

Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula slammed the DA and the EFF, calling them a "bunch of hypocrites and charlatans" and stating that the two parties could never unite as an opposition because it would be like "mixing oil and water".

The opposition parties - the DA, the African Christian Democratic Party, COPE, the UDM and the Freedom Front Plus - proposed the motion on the grounds that Mbete could not be both ANC chairman and Speaker of Parliament. Her ANC position, they said, biased her in favour of the ruling party.

Maimane said Mbete had made plain her contempt for the public protector's findings on the "security upgrading" at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead during the recent general election.

The EFF called for a retired judge to oversee sittings in the National Assembly instead of Mbete. ANC MPs rejected the idea before piling on the insults.

DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen fired a broadside at Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane, who had said ANC MPs would defend Zuma with their "buttocks".

He said: "Well, we've heard about your buttocks.

"You're obviously very adept at turning the other cheek."