The prosecution has produced its star witness in the murder trial of Thandi Maqubela - Justice Minister Jeff Radebe.

The evidence read like the script of a Hollywood movie, with addiction, fear and aphrodisiacs featuring prominently.

Radebe testified in the Cape Town High Court, the court over which slain acting judge Patrick Maqubela presided.

Maqubela's widow is now on trial for his murder.

Radebe was joined by a supporting cast drawn from the criminal justice system - the head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Menzi Simelane, Western Cape justice head Hishaam Mohamed, and Western Cape prosecutions boss Rodney de Kock.

Radebe's elegant wife, Brigette, managed to outshine Maqubela, who has treated those watching the proceedings to a fashion spectacle each day.

Radebe said that, on the day before the murder, Thandi asked to meet him in Cape Town to discuss a "sensitive matter".

Radebe and Patrick Maqubela had been friends for many years.

At first, Radebe told the court, Thandi was pleasant but she became angry as she told him about how her 60-year-old husband was a "sex addict" and had been having affairs with women in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

She had brought the evidence with her to back up her story - a box filled with pictures of condoms and "sex tablets", hotel invoices and flight tickets.

Radebe said she told him that she had caught her husband in hotel rooms with other women.

She warned Radebe that she would go public with the information with the help of the media.

Radebe testified that she said she would not consider divorce because her religion would not allow it. She had, after all, she said, vowed "till death do us part".

Radebe said he received the distinct impression that she wanted her husband destroyed.

"She came to you because she was concerned?" asked Maqubela's advocate, Marius Broeksma.

"She was telling me all this because she was aware that [he] was seeking permanent employment as a judge," Radebe responded.

Said Broeksma: "My instructions are that she wanted you to speak to him."

But Radebe said he felt she wanted to influence him in anticipation of when a permanent position for her husband was considered.

It also emerged in court that she had taken pictures of her husband's genitals and had sent them to fellow judges and friends. She had also arranged counselling for sex addiction for him in 2008.

Radebe said that after their four-hour meeting he met Maqubela.

"He looked happy and healthy, and said he jogged all the time ... until I dropped the bombshell.

"When I explained in detail what she had said, he was very disappointed. He was shocked that [she] had come to see me."

Radebe said the judge had "made up his mind" - he wanted to separate from his wife and planned to meet her later that evening.

When prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo asked Radebe if Maqubela was aware of his wife's threats to expose him as a sex addict, he said: "Yes, to my surprise he was aware of it. He told me that a Sowetan journalist had asked him about it," replied Radebe.

"Did he say how he felt about her?" asked Currie-Gamwo.

"He said 'Uyamoyika uThandi'. He is afraid of Thandi," Radebe responded.