The Zuma-Ngcuka saga has all the ingredients of a John le Carré thriller, complete with the involvement of a foreign intelligence agency.

It is beginning to take an ominous turn. It is to be hoped that the Hefer Commission will unravel this tangled web of intrigue and put to rest damaging speculations about senior members of government.

Of particular interest to the Indian community is a remark attributed to Ngcuka that Deputy President Zuma had "surrounded himself with Indians", the implication being that he was unduly influenced by Indians, of whom one of many stereotypes is that they are corrupt.

Another twist in the intrigue is the disclosure by the whistle-blower, Mike Shitonga, a senior official in the Ministry of Justice, that the minister had nepotistically appointed Enver Motala as liquidator in a matter involving over R300 million.

It has emerged that no less a personage than the Receiver of Revenue, Pravin Gordhan, had requested the attorney-general of KwaZulu-Natal to appoint Motala. For some reason the application was disallowed.

The Receiver then took the matter over the AG's head to the minister of justice, who sanctioned the appointment.

The lengths to which the Receiver of Revenue went to secure the appointment of Motala would suggest that this attorney must be a liquidator par excellence.

What could be his winning formula? If this distinctive formula were taught at law schools, is it not reasonable to presume that his colleagues would have been equally successful in procuring lucrative government contracts?

In the meantime, I wonder what evidence, if any, Ngcuka could adduce to justify his damaging insinuation about Indians, if indeed he made any such remark.

With acknowledgements to Bhan Mahabir and the Daily News.