Even worse, the saga has exposed how state resources were abused to fight political battles ahead of the ANC's Polokwane elective conference in 2007.

In a watershed moment in April 2009, Zuma was let off the hook on corruption charges by then acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe after the National Prosecuting Authority was presented with damning evidence, including tape recordings, that pointed to political interference in the case.

This paved the way for Zuma to become president in May 2009 without having corruption charges hovering over his head.

The spy tapes allegedly implicated, among others, former president Thabo Mbeki, former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, former Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy and former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla.

McCarthy's cellphone was bugged by the police's crime intelligence unit and the National Intelligence Agency.

Permission to intercept McCarthy's phone calls was granted by a high court judge after police presented an affidavit alleging that McCarthy was involved in crime.

McCarthy's conversations were recorded more than three weeks before the ANC conference at which Zuma ousted Mbeki as ANC president.

Since then, the issue of the spy tapes has disappeared from the public domain until recently, when the saga again surfaced in a labour dispute between former Special Investigating Unit boss Willie Hofmeyr and his then deputy, Faiek Davids.

Hofmeyr fired Davids in November 2010 on the basis of a recorded conversation he is alleged to have heard between Davids and McCarthy about the ANC's leadership race.

During a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration hearing last year, Hofmeyr testified that he had listened to tapes given to him by Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, in 2009, but that he did not receive copies of them.

However, in a new twist, Hofmeyr is now desperately searching for a copy to use in a Labour Court review application.

This after the CCMA ruled that the tapes were obtained illegally and could therefore not be used in the hearing because there was no physical copy available.

In the absence of the tapes, CCMA senior commissioner Bart Ford found that there was no tangible evidence, only Hofmeyr's testimony, that the recordings existed.

Hofmeyr said he had explored all avenues open to him in trying to obtain the contentious tapes, but had been unsuccessful.

He said that late last year he wrote to the Office for Interception Centres asking for help in obtaining copies.