Disgraced former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni has been given a week's breather before Parliament's joint ethics committee reopens its inquiry into whether he failed to disclose a substantial benefit in the register of members' interests.

The committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, which he was summoned to attend, will now meet on March 13 or 14, according to a notice sent to members.

Asked on Tuesday whether he would appear before the committee, Yengeni told Sapa: "No comment."

On calls by National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala that he should resign for lying to Parliament in a special statement to the National Assembly last year, he replied: "No comment."

In its reaction, the ANC said it respected Ginwala's right to express her view.

ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said it also respected Parliament's competency and authority to deal with its own members.

"Yengeni is no exception. The ANC will respect any decision taken by the institution."

It could not be immediately established why Wednesday's ethics committee meeting had been postponed.

The ethics committee last year suspended its inquiry pending Yengeni's trial on charges of corruption and fraud arising from a 47 percent discount he received on a luxury 4x4 vehicle from a company involved in the arms deal.

Yengeni was convicted of fraud last month after pleading guilty in terms of an agreement with the State. In return, he was acquitted of corruption.

His trial was postponed to March 19 for sentencing in Pretoria's Commercial Crimes Court. The ANC has deferred its decision on Yengeni's political fate until then.

Also on Tuesday, the ANC used its majority to force through its view on how the National Assembly should deal with Yengeni for lying to the National Assembly, saving the disgraced MP the public embarrassment of making a statement to the House.

In another indication of strained relations between the ANC whippery and Ginwala, the party rejected her proposal on how to deal with Yengeni.

The ANC wants a special multi-party committee - in which it has a majority based on proportional representation - to be established. Yengeni would be afforded the opportunity to address the committee either in person, in writing, or through a representative, and it would then report back to the National Assembly.

ANC members said a precedent had been set when a special committee was set up to deal with claims that Minerals and Energy Minister Penuell Maduna had misled the House.

Opposition parties are in favour of Ginwala's proposal that Yengeni be asked to make a public statement to the House in the first instance.

Also at Tuesday's National Assembly rules committee meeting, ethics committee chairman Luwellyn Landers said the lack of legislation on Parliament's powers and privileges was hampering his committee's ability to do its work.

"In the absence of sanctions as provided for by the law, the ethics committee's work is somewhat being stonewalled.

"Without referring to a particular member, the ethics committee is seized with a matter, which requires information being presented to it by an outside body."

Landers said that when a person outside Parliament refused to provide information, or was obfuscatory, "the road open to the ethics committee is to subpoena or to summons in terms of the Constitution under section 56".

However, the committee lacked the law to back this up.

In such an instance there should be process to impose sanctions on a body or a person outside Parliament, as well as an MP refusing to appear before a committee of Parliament.

Landers said the delay in processing the proposed Powers and Privileges Bill - now in its 10th draft - might even result in the ethics matter being put aside "because we are unable to proceed".

It appears Landers was referring to his committee's inquiry into IFP MP Mandla Msomi, who, like Yengeni, is accused of not disclosing substantial discounts on vehicles he received from Michael Woerfel, the then head of a company involved in the arms deal.

Ginwala told MPs that the powers and privileges bill would probably be tabled before the end of March.

The joint rules committee would look at the function of the ethics committee and its powers, she said.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and www.iafrica.co.za