Cape Town - The African National Congress (ANC) and the New National Party (NNP) came under fire yesterday as their members of the National Assembly ratified an ethics committee report exonerating Deputy President Jacob Zuma from failing to declare gifts.

Zuma was investigated by Parliament's ethics committee for failing to declare substantial cash gifts following a complaint by National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.

Ngcuka made the complaint after publicly announcing that he would not prosecute Zuma for allegedly soliciting bribes in return for protection from a French firm involved in the arms deal.

Last week the ANC and the NNP used their majority in the committee to carry a resolution which accepted Zuma's argument that the money was loans and not gifts and thus did not have to be declared in terms of Parliament's code of ethics.

When the matter came before the National Assembly yesterday the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) again cried foul.

They claimed that ANC and NNP members voted to absolve Zuma regardless of the evidence before the committee and the contradictions presented.

DA MP Hendrik Schmidt said that it was clear that the ANC MPs had entered the committee with a desired outcome in mind, regardless of the evidence. "Because of this bias from them we cannot agree with the report," he said.

IFP chief whip Sybil Seaton said that the nation would now never know whether Zuma had failed to declare gifts or not because the procedures followed by the committee were incorrect. She said there were clearly disputes over the facts before the committee and that hearings should have been held to further investigate the charges.

ACDP MP Cheryllyn Dudley said that the key role players should have been brought before the committee to give evidence. She said the message was clear that members of the executive were "off limits" for the ethics committee and an independent body was needed to deal with future charges against ministers.

ANC MP Jeremy Cronin defended the decision. He said the accusations from the Scorpions were hearsay and were countered by sworn statements from the people involved. "There appeared to have been an opposition plan to find the deputy president guilty at all costs," he said.

Ethics committee chairman Luwellyn Landers said the body met behind closed doors because it needed space to deliberate the facts. He said politicians particularly were prone to "grandstanding" and for this reason it could be detrimental for the deliberations to be in the open.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and the Business Day.