The row over Lindiwe Mazibuko's fashion sense has deepened with the ANC defending MPs accused of being sexist.
|||Cape Town - The row over the fashion sense of DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko deepened on Monday with the ANC defending its MPs who have been accused being “sexist and chauvinist”.
The ANC slammed Mazibuko’s “casual fashion”, saying it would never condone such a dress code among its members.
The ruling party also dragged DA leader Helen Zille and one of the party’s senior Western Cape leaders Theuns Botha into the debate, implying that the official opposition were guilty of double standards.
The ANC said the two had previously made “racist and sexist” comments about its members in the provincial legislature, by referring to them as an “elephant”, “hippopotamus” and a “baboon”.
This came as the campaign for next year’s general elections intensified this week, with parties making a variety of accusations and counter-accusations. Sanitation issues have taken centre stage in the DA-led City of Cape Town and the ANC-led City of Johannesburg.
During President Jacob Zuma’s budget vote debate last Wednesday, ANC MPs John Jeffery and Buti Manamela tried to mock Mazibuko’s fashion sense and weight, leading to an outcry from opposition benches.
The comments caused DA chief whip Sandy Kalyan to issue a statement calling on her counterpart, ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga, to discipline them for their “sexist and chauvinist rants”.
Manamela had told Parliament that “if (the) honourable Lindiwe Mazibuko is arrested by fashion police, blame Zuma”.
Jeffery said “while the honourable Mazibuko may be a person of substantial weight, her stature is questionable”.
Kalyan said “these petty references are a direct attack on the integrity of a fellow member and are un-parliamentary”.
But acting ANC deputy chief whip Mmamoloko Kubayi said on Monday that it was a coincidence that Manamela’s “hypothetical remarks” were made on a day Mazibuko “was dressed in casual fashion”.
Kubayi called on Zille to also apologise to ANC MPL Zodwa Magwaza for calling her an “elephant”.
Kubayi said Botha had referred to ANC leader in the legislature, Lynne Brown as a “hippopotamus”.
“Both Botha and Zille have also yet to either withdraw their demeaning and sexist ‘elephant’ and ‘hippopotamus’ slurs or apologise to both Magwaza and Brown,” said Kubayi.
But Zille stood by her remarks. “I was speaking about ‘the elephant in the room’ in the idiomatic sense of a major issue that has not been addressed and that people do not wish to confront. The Speaker ruled this too,” said Zille.
Kubayi added that as the acting deputy chief whip of the majority party in Parliament, “who is also a woman”; she would “never condone” casual attire by any ANC MP.
“Our discipline whip, for instance, turns away ANC MPs, men and women alike, almost daily for inappropriate attire… I would have preferred to raise the matter of Mazibuko’s attire confidentially in the closed meeting of the multiparty chief whips forum, rather than subject it to a public debate,” said Kubayi.
Political Bureau