Two centres of power, two law enforcement agencies, two weeks into the New Year and a brand new uniquely South African conundrum; the unprecedented legal situation of the country's top police officer asking a court to interdict anyone from arresting him.

Were this to happen anywhere else in the world, it would be mind-boggling, but unfortunately it's almost become the norm here.

To the lay person the courts' answer to Jackie Selebi should be clear: No person is above the law, and if they have a case to face, then they must do so without fear, favour or prejudice.

As president, Thabo Mbeki is morally and legally obliged to ensure that this country is neither diverted nor indeed derailed by the current political and judicial processes.

The impending arrest or otherwise of Commissioner Selebi should never have come to this impasse. Selebi should have been suspended pending the outcome of the Scorpions' inquiry into his affairs, just as Mbeki so resolutely suspended Jacob Zuma in June 2005 after the conviction of his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik. This decision was as much to protect Zuma, as it was to safeguard the country as a whole.

Instead, the Selebi affair drags on, reaching new lows with every instalment.

At times like these, when everything appears topsy-turvy, we need to keep our faith in the Constitution and the courts.

To do otherwise would be to suggest a fundamental mistrust in the integrity and fairness of the very processes and institutions that have delivered us from the darkness of apartheid and which continue to prevent the whole edifice collapsing into anarchy and oppression.

With acknowledgements to Cape Argus.