In the latest saga in the Ngcuka vs Zuma contest, an apartheid-era judge has been appointed by the president to probe whether Mr Ngcuka was an apartheid-era spy!

Now here's a rare act of faith by Mr Mbeki that cannot be allowed to pass without comment and commendation. There are not many such examples in history.

King Alexander of Macedonia was about to swallow a potion prepared by his physician when a messenger came riding posthaste with an urgent message. Alexander read the note, swallowed the potion and handed the missive to his physician to read.

The note was an urgent warning from his minister that his physician was going to poison him with a potion!

His expression of total confidence in his physician won the undying loyalty of that man. Not without good reason did they call him Alexander the "Great".

Wouldn't it be helpful if the carping critics from the opposition took a leaf out of Mbeki's book?

With acknowledgements to Bhan Mahabir and the City Press.