Women's rights group Gender Links on Thursday "deplored" both opposition leader Helen Zille and the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) for their "sexist slurs".

Its executive director, Colleen Lowe Morna, criticised both Zille, the Western Cape Premier who came under fire for her all-male executive council, and the ANCYL, who accused Zille of sleeping around with these executive members, for their mud-slinging match.

"While it is true that President Jacob Zuma behaved in a highly irresponsible manner by having unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman... using attack as a form of defence for appointing an all male Cabinet, as Helen Zille has done, is lame and inexcusable," said Lowe Morna.

Zille described Zuma as a sexist after she was criticised for her men only executive.

"To say that she has appointed a Cabinet 'fit for the purpose' in her choice of a virtually all white, and no woman Cabinet suggests that there are no capable blacks or women in the Western Cape," said Lowe Morna.

She added that Gender Links supported the action taken by the Congress of South African Trade Unions to lodge complaints with the Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and the Equality Court about the composition of Zille's executive.

Lowe Morna said the ANCYL had behaved "equally unacceptably" by referring to Zille as a girl "who appointed an all male Cabinet of useless people, the majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them".

Lowe Morna said: "We welcome the fact that the ANC head office has distanced itself from these comments and called for a return to civility in political discourse."

She called on the Commission on Gender Equality to voice concern over discrimination against women.

Lowe Morna also called on Zuma to invite his rape accuser, who is living in exile, back to the country and guarantee her safety.