Deputy President Jacob Zuma does not believe his name is being dragged through the mud because of his financial adviser's trial on fraud and corruption charges.

He told MPs during a rowdy question session in the national assembly yesterday that Schabir Shaik's trial was not a "black spot" on the image of his office or that of the moral regeneration campaign he headed.

Zuma's attorneys are keeping a watching brief on Shaik's trial.

The DA had hoped to ask Zuma to shed light on his parliamentary reply in March last year about a meeting with Alain Thetard, a director of the French arms company Thint Holdings, initially known as Thompson-CSF and later as Thales International.

Raenette Taljaard (DA) had also hoped to ask Zuma whether he wished to reconsider the statement he made to the parliamentary ethics committee that payments he had received from Shaik were interest-bearing loans.

The payments have been examined in a forensic audit report submitted by the state to the high court hearing Shaik's trial.

Speaker Baleka Mbete, in a letter to Taljaard that was copied to Zuma, wrote that the questions were out of order as the national assembly's rule 67 said "no member shall refer to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending".

The DA argued that Zuma was not an accused or a witness in Shaik's trial and that there was no judicial decision pending.

DA chief whip Douglas Gibson urged that the assembly rule be interpreted in the light of the constitution's freedom of expression clause and a court precedent that "the sub judice rule" be applied in a more limited way.

Gibson told the assembly that Mbete was effectively denying Zuma the opportunity to clear his name.

"Today provides the perfect opportunity for him to tell the public the facts without in any way affecting the outcome of the Shaik trial, to which he is not a party."

Judith February, of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said she believed Mbete had acted correctly and that the replies sought by Taljaard were intrinsic to the trial.

Zuma was in an invidious position. "He can't do in parliament what he has not done in a court."

The DA had jumped the gun

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and the Cape Times.