The slur campaign against Bulelani Ngcuka has all the hallmarks of the dirty tricks campaigns we encountered under the De Klerk government in the run-up to the 1994 elections.

I remember with great gratitude the role Ngcuka played in clearing up the remnants of the apartheid government's destabilisation and dirty tricks campaign after those elections.

It was only because of his appointment as super-attorney-general, and his subsequent determined actions against then Natal attorney-general Tim McNally, that that destabilisation campaign finally came to an end.

His role was decisive and fundamental.

With acknowledgements to George Ellis and the Cape Times.