Those of us who try to read the tea leaves of South African political life may have seen a pattern emerging recently - one that suggests that President Thabo Mbeki is confident of his ground in spite of the apparent rumblings in his party.

His unblinking decision to attend apartheid president PW Botha's funeral this week came in spite of some fierce criticism of the old autocrat from the likes of Cosatu and the ANC Youth League. It is evident that the ANC's grassroots supporters would have been baffled by the decision.

Yesterday comments by government spokesman Themba Maseko indicate that Mbeki's senior colleagues are sitting firmly alongside him, and that he is on the front foot.

Emerging from a cabinet meeting, Maseko issued what was obviously a thinly-veiled attack on Jacob Zuma and the ANC Youth and Young Communist Leagues.

Responding to attacks on Judge Hilary Squires, who presided over the original corruption and fraud trial of Schabir Shaik, Maseko said "any unjustified, racially and ill-informed attacks on the judiciary (are) both regrettable and unwelcome".

He said Squires had been "called a whole lot of things by a number of bodies which we condemn and find totally unacceptable".

The most vocal critics of Squires have, of course, been Zuma, the ANCYL and the YCL (or, more specifically, some noisy individuals within those organisations).

Whatever the President's strategy, it seems that he is biding his time.

He has proved to be an exceptionally canny operator in the past, and it is highly unlikely that he is not going to act decisively against those whose activities are threatening the unity of the ANC.

Perhaps the table is being laid.

With acknowledgement to Cape Argus.