With guns blazing the ANC Women's League (ANCWL) has joined in the chorus of party support for beleaguered Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, accusing the media of bullying her while she was still recovering from surgery.
"The ANC Women's League would like to condemn the unethical and immoral way in which the media has dealt with personal matters relating to Comrade Manto.
"We view what the media is doing as invasion of privacy," the league said on Tuesday in reply to media reports claiming Tshabalala-Msimang was a drunk and a thief.
The statement came after a similar public endorsement by the ANC's national working committee, which also spurred action from the party in parliament during the first plenary sitting of the national assembly since June.
ANC Western Cape party chairperson James Ngculu, who chairs the assembly's health committee, and ANC health whip Maureen Madumise, were the parliamentarians tasked to defend Tshabalala-Msimang and attack the Sunday Times newspaper.
This came after DA leader in parliament Sandra Botha gave what will effectively be a symbolic notice of motion calling for a vote of no confidence in the health minister, given that any such call will not be supported by the ANC majority in the house.
The ANCWL also accused the media of sexism for targeting a woman minister.
"It has been very easy for people to disrespect offices occupied by women. The insults that are thrown to women are unbelievable, more especially because South Africa has a very progressive constitution which stands for equality and non-sexism," it said.
It further berated the media for attacking a person who was still recuperating from a "very major operation" arguing that it was not part of African culture to do so.
On Tuesday, the ANC parliamentary caucus also expressed its concern about a statement issued by the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef).
On Monday, Sanef said it supported the right of editors to publish information they believed to be truthful and in the public interest.
It believed the Sunday Times would have ensured the information it published was true.
"The development means that the press can arbitrarily contravene fundamental legal principles and violate persons' constitutional right to dignity and respect," the ANC caucus statement said.
The general public should be "worried about this" the caucus warned, arguing that the media may use the guise of public interest to violate basic human rights.
The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) on Tuesday said the minister's poor management skills were compromising the country's public health service.
It argued that President Thabo Mbeki needed to look no further than her publicised track record to find reasons to sack her.
"She has failed to ensure acceptable levels of financial accountability in the department, failed to exercise oversight with respect to poorly performing provincial health departments and failed to implement an effective staff recruitment and retention strategy," PSAM said.