On Friday the Western Cape Judge President, John Hlophe, ruled that the prosecution in the case of former state security minister Bongani Bongo did not have a case against him, in the allegation that he had attempted to bribe a senior official to stop Parliament’s Eskom Inquiry. The ruling lands like a grenade in a set of dynamics involving the excruciating debate over the ANC’s “step aside” resolution, the recent attacks on the judiciary, and more importantly, the National Executive Committee’s (NEC’s) position on the corruption case against ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule. Perhaps more importantly for the judiciary, the ruling also involves the embattled Hlophe himself, a judge who has been accused of assaulting another judge and lying about it, and claims that he himself was involved in a case concerning his own attorney, Barnabas Xulu.