When the president delivered the keynote address at the horse-racing- themed bash, he said to Moodley: "You're a friend, comrade." He then bumbled in true Zuma style: "We have something to do with you during elections which we have discussed with you. It will be impacting on people in different ways. I want him to impact on certain people in a few months. Your friends and colleagues here vote well."

Zuma and Moodley come a long way. When the ANC leader was inaugurated as president in May 2009, Moodley was one of his VIP guests.

There have for years been rumours that he has been bankrolling both Zuma and his family.

He is also reportedly a generous contributor to the ANC and was previously ward chairperson of the organisation's Umhlanga branch in KwaZulu-Natal.

When public protector Thuli Madonsela did her "State of Capture" report, she submitted a list of 42 questions to Zuma. One of the questions was about his relationship with Moodley. Zuma refused to answer her. Their friendship has nonetheless been public, warm and beneficial. Moodley is an avid racehorse owner (he had 51 winners in the 2014/15 season) and in 2010 Zuma famously won R15,000 at the Durban July and was pictured flaunting the cash alongside Moodley. The two were again pictured together at the 2016 Durban July.

News24 reported in 2016 that mystery surrounded payments of R550-million to Moodley by a tender-rich IT security company. Siyangena Technologies won disputed contracts from one of our many ailing and besieged parastatals, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, worth R4-billion, and in turn paid large sums of money to companies directly linked to Moodley.

The news site said that Siyangena is co-owned by soccer boss Mario Ferreira, whose relationship with Moodley seems to involve more than just business; they are co-owners of local racehorses. The payments from Siyangena to Moodley were the third example of large, unexplained payments that Prasa contractors made to individuals closely linked to Zuma and his family.

THE PRESIDENT'S BOSS

The "JG Zuma" tax query from the Durban auditor at the regional office in Durban caused consternation at head office in Pretoria.

My sources said that Royal Security ultimately paid the taxes due to SARS on behalf of the "employee" (JG Zuma) and the matter, at least from the company's perspective, was laid to rest. Moodley paid the tax via bank transfer.

They said - and this is the crux of the matter - that Zuma was employed at the security company for at least four months after becoming president. It means that for the first months of his presidency, Zuma's boss was Roy Moodley. These payments to Zuma must give Moodley an iron hold over Zuma.

What Zuma allegedly did was dishonest, unlawful and unconstitutional. He came close to losing his presidency after the Constitutional Court ruled in 2016 that he had failed to uphold the constitution. But this is much worse.

MORTAL DANGER

Zuma was in deep trouble, because the officials that dealt with Zuma's tax affairs - Oupa Magashula before he left SARS, Ivan Pillay, Mark Kingon, Gene Ravele and Johann van Loggerenberg - would have treated Zuma no differently from any other taxpayer.

During the meeting between Pillay and Zuma in February 2014, the SARS acting commissioner apparently stressed to the president that he could not continue to drag his feet on the Nkandla tax issue and that, unless he submitted his tax returns and declared the fringe benefit, SARS would have no choice but to advance the case to the next level.

According to internal SARS notes of the meeting, Pillay told him that whatever his answer was to be regarding Nkandla, he needed to do his tax planning on the effects of the Nkandla benefits and do so properly and soon. Otherwise it would become a problem and SARS did not want to be drawn into political fights.

Zuma was once again noncommittal about his returns and undertook to give the matter his attention.

A full-scale probe of Zuma's tax affairs posed a mortal danger to him because he couldn't afford to pay the taxes, which could ultimately have resulted in his sequestration - which would have spelt the end of his presidential reign. A South African president cannot be an unrehabilitated insolvent.

Secondly, had it come out that he was also an "employee" of a private company in the first few months of being president, he could have been "impeached" and removed from office.

Even if a generous sponsor was prepared to settle Zuma's massive tax bill, it would have unleashed donations tax. If Zuma got a loan to pay his tax bill, he would have had to show how he was repaying the loan. Through a mixture of ignorance and arrogance, the president had spun himself into a cocoon from where there was no escape.

When the Constitutional Court ruled in 2016 that Zuma must repay R7.81-million for the non-security upgrades at Nkandla, he had to scrounge South Africa's northernmost outpost to find an institution that would lend him the money. VBS Mutual Bank was set up in the former "independent" Republic of Venda and specialised in home loans for residents in the area. Zuma has a woeful credit record. Any credible financial institution would red-flag and reject his application.

My SARS sources said: "We know that Zuma fears the corruption charges. That's common knowledge. But that's nothing in comparison with his potentially huge tax bill, the fact that his household may have received proceeds of smuggled tobacco, and those payments allegedly made by Roy Moodley. And there are others too, the Guptas and so on. He would never have survived it. He could even have been sequestrated ultimately. That was his biggest fear. And he knew these guys hardly lost cases in court."

There was, of course, the last and final solution for Zuma; the ultimate way out of his tax problems. This is the one I am suggesting was the reason for the upheaval at SARS and the removal of the "Gordhan Four".

The first step for Zuma was to appoint his pal Tom Moyane as SARS commissioner. He, in turn, purged the place of anybody who could cause trouble. That, of course, wouldn't have been enough, because what if they talk, or what if they enter the system in another way? No, they had to be branded as dishonest, criminal even, crooks, untrustworthy - just in case any of them decided to say something nasty about Zuma.

SNITCHES, PIMPS, RATS ... AND THE PRESIDENT

Hold on to your seat for I'm going to take you on a short journey through gangsta land. And not just because it entails gaudy and lurid characters with high entertainment value, but because it relates directly to the events around tobacco manufacturer Yusuf Kajee, Nkandla and Jacob Zuma. It highlights Kajee's relationship with the president.

Towards the end of 2013, four unsavoury characters met at the upmarket Serengeti golf estate near OR Tambo International Airport on Johannesburg's East Rand. They were convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti, Kajee and a business associate, Paul de Robillard, as well as a fourth person by the name of Warren who never spoke. A magistrate once placed Agliotti among the "snitches, pimps and rats" who sold their soul to avoid spending time in the slammer. Called the "Landlord", he has for years been known in the underworld as a "fixer"; the go-to guy who sets up "connections", makes problems disappear and negotiates deals.