A document which Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane had hoped to use as the bedrock of her report on Pravin Gordhan in the ongoing SARS 'rogue unit' saga has been reviewed and set aside, delivering a potentially fatal blow to her case.

The genesis of the "rogue unit" narrative can in part be traced back to a 2014 report by former inspector-general of intelligence, Faith Radebe, an investigation that has now been trashed and rendered useless.

On Monday 8 June, Judge Sulet Potterill in the North Gauteng High Court ruled that a 31 October 2014 document titled "Report on the investigation into Media Allegations against the Special Operations Unit and/or other Branches of the State Security Agency" be reviewed and set aside, including its findings and recommendations.

Radebe's report had alleged that a "covert" intelligence unit in SARS had existed and had been unlawful.

Public Protector (PP) Busisiwe Mkhwebane's first legal bid at getting her hands on the report was in March 2019 when she lodged criminal charges against the then-minister of state security, Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, for failing to hand over the classified Radebe investigation.

Letsatsi-Duba lodged a counter-charge against Mkhwebane, accusing her of unlawfully possessing a classified document. The NPA...