AFRICAN National Congress parliamentarian Peter Mokaba has been fighting a serious but as yet unnamed illness since October last year. The sickness has kept Mokaba, a member of the mineral and energy affairs portfolio committee, out of parliament for more than five months. Portfolio committee registers indicate he last attended a sitting on October 20 last year. ANC national spokesman Smuts Ngonyama confirmed on Monday that the party only learned of Mokaba’s apparently serious illness at the weekend. He declined to give further details until after an ANC delegation visited Mokaba to pay respects. A family member, who declined to be named, meanwhile denied weekend media reports that Mokaba had been admitted to hospital in Pietersburg in a critical condition. He insisted the matter was a private family affair and refused to say what was wrong with Mokaba.