"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," was the government's reaction to reports that President Thabo Mbeki and cabinet ministers might be called to testify on behalf of axed deputy president Jacob Zuma in his corruption trial.

Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said on Sunday that it would be ill-advised to comment on court cases, especially when they were already under way.

ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama was reluctant to comment, saying it was not a party matter. It was a distinction that Netshitenzhe also tried to draw.

Netshitenzhe said there was a need to "differentiate between technical legal processes to establish the truth" and matters of politics that were managed in the ANC.

It was reported at the weekend that the president had been informed that he and other high-profile ministers would be asked to testify about a letter sent in January 2001 by Zuma to Gavin Woods, the IFP MP who then chaired the watchdog Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

At the time of the fallout in parliament about the letter, speculation was rife that Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad or the president's legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi, had drafted the letter.

However, it is understood that Zuma now claims that although he signed the letter, it was actually written by Mbeki himself, working with a group of cabinet ministers.

The 2001 letter to Woods was used in the corruption trial of Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, in support of the charge that Shaik had sought a bribe from French arms company Thales by offering Zuma's protection against the investigation into the arms deal.

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and The Mercury.