During the early 1990s the phrase "the morbid symptoms of transition" was often used to explain the terrible wave of violence that swept the country in the years before the 1994 elections. It applies now, in the power vacuum created by the fall of Thabo Mbeki as ANC leader and the frenzied battle by supporters of Jacob Zuma to install him as South Africa's next president.

Among the "morbid symptoms" are the recent attacks on the judiciary and the Human Rights Commission, which were centrally about ensuring that Zuma takes the reins and that his supporters enjoy the resulting fruits of office. And they include the extraordinary activities of Menzi Simelane, supposedly a neutral state administrator who has been straining every nerve to undermine the Scorpions and the corruption case they plan to bring against the ANC president.

Simelane, the director general in the Justice Department, interprets his role as meaning the subversion of one of the country's law enforcement agencies and its prosecution of Zuma. In a mature constitutional democracy which upholds the rule of law, he would be forced to step down.

But in a one-party dominant state like ours, officials with political aspirations that suit the ANC are allowed to ride roughshod over our hard-won constitutional values and governance norms. Because he is doing the bidding of the new ANC leadership and Mbeki will not dare act against him, he will survive and in all likelihood prosper.

In our lead story this week, we report that a senior staffer of the National Prosecuting Authority is accusing Simelane of seeking to spy on National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli by getting prosecutors to record his actions and then informing him. He has been going around town telling journalists that there is no case against Zuma. We repeat: he is the most senior official of the Justice Department, responsible for overseeing the justice system and in charge of the state structure to which the National Prosecuting Authority reports. He is emerging at the forefront of the growing national agitation to have the charges against Zuma thrown out before they reach court.

Apart from his spearhead role in the ANC's efforts to shut down the Scorpions, he has played a role in filibustering the British Serious Fraud Office's endeavours to investigate the arms deal. A director general who rose to the top during the Mbeki era, he is now doing everything in his power to keep his job, and perhaps rise, in the new dispensation, regardless of the damage to the body politic.

The risks inherent in a highly politicised bureaucracy are obvious: state power is used to advance sectional interests. Instead of a corps of professional administrators dedicated to serving the people, we are moving towards a US-style system where senior bureaucrats are political players with partisan instincts, but without the checks and balances which make the American model work.

Certain directors general are known to have lobbied for officialdom to stay above the political fray. Simelane, by contrast, has taken his office to its very centre.

With acknowledgements to Mail and Guardian.