Two years is a long time in a wilderness of mirrors.

I’ve kept faith with my former bosses in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and what I hope was a dignified silence in the face of misrepresentations for almost exactly two years now, since May 7 2007.

I kept my trap shut and I watched, sometimes with amusement, frequently with frank disbelief, as my whole life was turned inside out in distorted reflections and echoes.

More and more evidence piled up of systematic invasions of my work as an investigator for the directorate of special operations, more and more evidence that I had been the target of undercover operations by agencies of state.

Why? I’m not criminal. I don’t work for a foreign intelligence service. I wasn’t even an undercover asset of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency. The only answer I can find is that I was trying to do my job — and in particular one aspect of that job, the now-notorious Browse Mole exercise.

The document has been characterised as an act of high treason, a rogue plot orchestrated by third force elements, clear evidence of substance abuse, the sinister meddling of foreign intelligence agencies ...

Then it turned out that I had been misled from the start and, worse, that I had apparently been offered up as a scapegoat.

Dr Zweli Mkhize

The removal of this case from court allows more debate since the sub-judice principle had restricted ANC members from openly engaging in this matter in public.

From the start of the case against Zuma, it was known that the NPA wanted to rely on circumstantial evidence and public perception of Zuma's guilt to convince the court. They would never produce evidence, as there is none. Whatever evidence they relied upon in the Shaik trial was not necessarily evidence in the Zuma case. This made the case "not winnable in court" as Ngcuka put it. The political nature of the case informed the defense strategy, as Advocate Kemp referred to it as " the battle of Leningrad, moving from one burning house to another", including the challenge to Mauritian courts.

The source of Zuma's problems started with the R500 000 that Shaik is said to have received from the French company Thint that he was in partnership with. Scorpions initially believed that it was the same money that was transferred to Development Africa destined to the Nkandla homestead that Zuma had constructed with the support of Vivian Reddy. Scorpions were disappointed when evidence was shown to them that they were mistaken.

PETER HITCHENS on South Africa's next president

Imagine how you would react if Gordon Brown opened and closed his election rallies by bursting into a song called Bring Me My Machine Gun, swaying and jigging to the hypnotic chorus of this menacing ditty.

And how would you feel if the Prime Minister were alleged to be taking campaign money from Colonel Gaddafi; faced 783 counts of fraud, racketeering, tax evasion and corruption which somehow never came to court; and had been acquitted of rape while his fearsome supporters mobbed the courthouse?

Then ponder how you would despair if, despite all these things, Mr Brown's party was certain to win the election whatever he did or said.

If you can picture all this happening here, then you have an inkling of the horrible process South Africa is now going through. Except it is much, much worse.

This fast-approaching catastrophe is a source of shame and apprehension to millions of honest people, white and black, in South Africa itself.

It is also a tragedy for Africa as a whole, a continent hungry for any reason to hope. And it is grave news for the civilised world, which needs no more failed states.

Yet I can promise you I will be accused of alarmism and pessimism for saying so, and quite possibly of 'racism' too.

Why? All the soppy admirers of Nelson Mandela - especially the BBC - gave the new South Africa a free pass when apartheid ended 15 years ago.

They wanted to believe this complicated and important nation had become a sort of heaven on Earth where all tears were dried and all problems solved.

A top spy once closely linked to former president Thabo Mbeki saved ANC president Jacob Zuma’s political life.

The Mail & Guardian has established from three independent sources central to this week’s dropping of the criminal charges against Zuma that the National Intelligence Agency’s (NIA) deputy head, Arthur Fraser, was the man who leaked to Zuma’s lawyers the secret recordings that ultimately let him off the hook.

Reacting to the M&G’s questions, NIA spokesperson Lorna Daniels said there was “no basis to the allegation that [Fraser] handed the tapes to Jacob Zuma and/or his legal team. He will have a real problem if you publish that allegation because it’s unfounded and will damage his reputation and integrity”.

She declined to respond to the M&G’s questions about how Zuma’s lawyers obtained secret NIA tapes and whether action would be taken against Fraser.

“The matter is being investigated by the inspector general of intelligence’s office and we wouldn’t comment on this matter now,” Daniels said.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) withdrew corruption and fraud charges against Zuma on Tuesday in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court after acting NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe announced on Monday that the secret connivance between former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka amounted to an “intolerable abuse”.