Whatever credibility Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik may have had as anti-apartheid activists has all but evaporated with their wild accusations against Bulelani Ngcuka.

The accusations against Ngcuka have been proven to be mud-slinging from a couple out to save their own backs.

Therefore it remains a mystery why, since we see so little of our president, none of the big guns in the ANC has had the courage to repudiate them, let alone expelling them from the organisation.

Or are the Madikizela-Mandela, Yengeni, Lekota and other precedents considered so binding that no-one in the ruling party would dare say what is in the best interest of the party and the country, namely show Maharaj and Mo Shaik a yellow card and then a red one.

With acknowledgements to Maganbhai Ranchhod, Salahuddin Suleiman and the City Press.