The exchange between the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, and President Jacob Zuma during yesterday's budget vote reply was deeply disturbing.

At the end of his speech the President sneered that Parliament had become an embarrassment he often had to account for abroad and that the Speaker had to 'get her House in order'.

This insult is incredibly hypocritical considering the numerous embarrassments South Africans have had to account for on his behalf locally and abroad, but also a highly inappropriate and public erosion of the separation of powers.

President's Zuma's remark, however informal, were effectively an Executive attempt to exercise oversight on the legislature, which the Speaker not only capitulated to, but supported.

Both are ANC NEC members and have repeatedly allowed the lines between these spheres of government to blur in order to serve a partisan political agenda.

Parliament must remain a robust and independent institution, and if anyone's should get their house in order, it should be the President and the corrupt house of cards he has built while in office.

Issued by DA