'Buttocks' remark is Sepedi idiom: Mpitsang

"In our ethnic language, there are some idioms that you use to express a meaning like: push until it happens, or do whatever it takes. That was an idiom, it was not a literal meaning," said Mokonyane's spokeswoman Brenda Mpitsang.

 

"Someone who knows the language would understand the meaning. When she [Mokonyane] used that expression, she was trying to emphasise the extent she would go to counterattack the people who are attacking the president."

 

Mokonyane was quoted in the Sowetan earlier as saying ANC members and Cabinet ministers would use their buttocks to defend Zuma.

 

"The attack is not on Zuma, but it is on the ANC. Re tlo thiba ka dibono [We will defend with our buttocks]," Mokonyane said at the launch of a water project in Marite, Mpumalanga, on Saturday.

 

"Like it or not, Zuma is ours. He will finish the term because we want water..."

 

Mokonyane said Zuma would finish his term in spite of the controversies surrounding him.

 

In March, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that Zuma had derived undue benefit from the R246 million improvements made to his homestead in KwaZulu-Natal. She recommended that he pay back a portion of the money.

 

Zuma also came under the spotlight recently when the so-called "spy tapes" were released to the Democratic Alliance following a court order.