SPEAKER MBETE - A STUDY IN VERBAL INCONTINENCE

Speaker Baleta Mbete has refused to resign, or apologise to the country following the recent Constitutional Court's judgment. The court plainly ruled that the National Assembly had acted inconsistently with the Constitution by setting aside Madonsela's Nkandla report. The action of the National Assembly, according to Mbete's interpretation of the ruling, was not a knowingly malicious violation of the Constitution. Consequently resignation or an apology was unwarranted. Mbete fails to understand that "inconsistent" is synonymous with "violate" - a failure to do what is required by a law - in this instance the Constitution. The fact that it may not be knowingly and maliciously committed does not eviscerate the commission of the violation, nor the seriousness of the indictment leveled at the National Assembly. Mbete allowed ANC MP's to ride roughshod over the supreme law of the land. The sad part: she is either oblivious to the harm caused, or an incurable enabler for her ANC comrades. Either one is unforgivable. Mbete should choose her words more carefully because verbal incontinence is "inconsistent" with the gravitas of the Office of the Speaker.