Koos takes the cake

Cape Town - IFP Chief Whip Koos van der Merwe on Friday kept his promise and presented a cake to newly-elected National Assembly Speaker Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde to celebrate her election to the position.

However, this time he hand-delivered the confectionery to her office, not willing to take the risk of again being evicted from the Assembly with cake in hand.

Last year, Van der Merwe took a cake into the Assembly to celebrate one year of waiting to get an appointment with former president Thabo Mbeki.

After a lengthy and at times heated debate, then Deputy Speaker Mahlangu-Nkabinde ordered him to "take his cake and leave the House".

However, the DA "took the cake and ate it", Van der Merwe said.

"This time I did not have the guts to risk being chased out again, so I rather took the cake to the Speaker's office."

He said he had been warmly received by Mahlangu-Nkabinde when he took the cake into her office.

"The new Deputy Speaker Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was also present and the Speaker promised to share the cake with her," Van der Merwe said.

But despite this, she declined to commit herself to saying yes when Van der Merwe asked her never to chase him out of the House again.

Van der Merwe, 71, is South Africa's longest serving MP with 31 years on the Assembly benches.

He has served under seven heads of state - John Vorster, PW Botha, FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, and now Kgalema Motlanthe.