Mbete apologised on Wednesday for describing EFF leader Julius Malema as a cockroach.
“I apologise unconditionally, to South Africans, to Parliament and Honourable Julius Malema for any hurt or harm I may have caused,” Mbete said in a statement.
“If we don’t work we will continue to have cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place,” the Mail&Guardian online quoted her as saying at an African National Congress North West congress on the weekend.
Mbete said she had been thinking long and hard about her words.
“I have concluded that my remarks, all offending statements I made, were inappropriate. The manner in which they came across was unfortunate and regrettable.”
She withdrew the remarks unreservedly.