On Thursday the curtain fell on the spectacle that played itself out in the Justitia Building theatre, bringing to a close a production that has been running since October.
The drama, precipitated by the allegations that Bulelani Ngcuka, head of the National Prosecuting Authority, was an apartheid spy and abused his office, had all the hallmarks of an award-winning production.
The executive producer, President Thabo Mbeki, set the scriptwriters a fertile backdrop to showcase their talents. The director, Judge Joos Hefer, ensured that all the actors kept to the script — if you can’t prove that Ngcuka was a spy, don’t even venture to tell us that he abused his power, he warned.
What resulted was a story with layers of subplots. On one level, the show was about the fall and decline of struggle hero and former transport minister Mac Maharaj, and the rise of new-order hero, Ngcuka.
Later on the twists in the plot found the audience captivated by the ”Spy Who Loved Me” — as love letters written to Ngcuka by his then fiancÃ