Battle lines have been drawn as top corruption buster Willie Hofmeyr and his accuser, businessman and alleged tax fraudster Dave King, went head to head.

A day after the Sunday Times reported that knives were out for Hofmeyr, who heads the Special Investigating Unit, which is probing at least 40 corruption cases in government departments, King reiterated that he had laid "corruption charges" against Hofmeyr.

But Hofmeyr said last night that King was merely trying to "disrupt" the criminal case against him, and had laid charges against several prosecutors involved in the many cases involving him, "most of which have proved groundless".

"I strongly believed that there was no substance in the complaint, and that it was another attempt to disrupt his prosecution," Hofmeyr said.

King, who is facing a string of charges, including tax evasion and corruption, made an unspecified criminal complaint against Hofmeyr last year.

In a statement yesterday, King said he did not want to tarnish Hofmeyr's reputation "unfairly" and had consulted two of his long-standing senior lawyers for their opinion.

"I then sought a second opinion from a senior counsel who had no prior involvement in my matters and who had previously been chairman of the Bar Council," King said.

On Sunday, Hofmeyr was reported as saying that, if he had believed that he had done anything wrong, "I would have offered to resign my position, or asked to be placed on suspension pending a resolution of the matter".

But yesterday, in a bitter swipe at Hofmeyr, King said the corruption-buster "has grandstanded before the media for years".

"A reconciliation of his actual achievements will demonstrate a reality well short of his self-promotion.

"He has been judged by the peers that he wished judgment from and should now do the honourable thing and resign."

King allegedly owes SARS about R900-million in unpaid taxes and his Ben Nevis Holdings Ltd allegedly owes R2.7-billion. King claimed in an interview yesterday that he had spent R250-million in legal fees.

The Sunday Times at the weekend lifted the lid on additional corruption claims levelled against Hofmeyr and top officials of the National Prosecuting Authority thought to be close to him, which several insiders claimed were stage-managed by national director of public prosecutions Menzi Simelane.

The newspaper reported that it was Simelane who referred King's claims to the police.

But late yesterday afternoon, Hofmeyr said King first wrote to Simelane in May last year to lodge his "criminal complaint".

He said he believed King's complaint had no merit.

"I was reinforced in my view by an opinion from a senior counsel, who was also strongly of the view that there was no merit in the complaint."

However, Hofmeyr insisted that it was important to investigate the claims and the NPA proposed an internal investigation.

Hofmeyr then decided against this as an internal probe would lack credibility "especially if I were cleared of the charges".

He instead proposed that a panel of senior advocates take up the case, but it was subsequently decided that it was "more appropriate to refer the complaint to the [police]", he said.

"Representations were made to the investigating officer in December 2010 and the complaint is still being investigated by the [police] in the normal course," he said.

"I have always said that I am very happy to have an independent investigation done ...I reiterate what I had said previously, namely that I believe that no one is above the law or beyond investigation."