To all those ­ from President Thabo Mbeki down ­ who Hogarth lampooned over the years for disbanding the Heath Special Investigating Unit: you were right.

It turns out that Judge Willem Heath suffers from rather bad judgment.

This week he was quoted by Independent newspapers as saying of the Shaik judgment: “I am inextricably drawn to the inference that [former Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka], appointed as a politician, had a political motive for brutally attempting to destroy Zuma’s reputation and stamping on his constitutional rights to defend himself in court.”

He went further: “What we are seeing is ... a blatant attempt to use the arms-deal fiasco as the ideal springboard for political agendas and hidden motives.”

And your political agenda, Judge Mampara?

With acknowledgements to Hogarth and Sunday Times.