The Pretoria High Court has heard that in the winter of 2008, behind a hostage situation in the Badplaas police station and a violent protest outside the Nkomazi Wilderness nature reserve, the spectre of David Dabede Mabuza loomed large. Despite the best attempts of the deputy president’s counsel to quash the evidence, the court also heard testimony that linked these events to massive land claims fraud, with the findings of investigator Paul O’Sullivan laying out the paper trail.