BASKING in the glory of her protégé Lindiwe Mazibuko in the Democratic Alliance caucus elections, party leader Helen Zille yesterday lashed out at her senior MPs who had claimed that she was interfering in the parliamentary leadership race.

The DA's youngest Member of Parliament, Mazibuko was overwhelmingly elected the party's new parliamentary leader after trouncing Athol Trollip by 50 votes to 31.

In a post-election address, Zille said she would be abdicating her responsibilities as party leader if she did not provide leadership to the DA parliamentary caucus.

"I am a full member of the parliamentary caucus, and I would be abdicating my responsibilities if I did not give leadership and if I did not have a close relationship with the leadership of caucus," she said.

Senior DA MPs in the Trollip camp have interpreted her campaign for the ascendancy of 31-year old Mazibuko as a move on her part to have a firm grip on parliamentary caucus and control it by remote control from her Wale Street Premier's Office.

Veteran MP Dene Smuts penned a strongly worded statement, in which she spelled out her reasons for supporting Trollip in the fierce leadership battle that has thrown divisions in the DA into the open.

In her statement, Smuts said: "Athol Trollip has my support because he tells any party boss who tries to take the democracy out of the DA to get lost - and, if I know him, he would have done so in robust terms."

This was widely interpreted as a veiled attack on Zille.

Mazibuko's victory not only made her the only MP to lead a party in Parliament, but also made her the first black female to lead the official opposition in the National Assembly.

In her position as DA parliamentary chief, Mazibuko will lead her party's parliamentary oversight on President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe.

Trollip said he would remain in Parliament as an MP until 2014.