colenso soon decided – probably correctly – that the colonial officials were doing all in their power to undermine cetshwayo and his usuthu supporters. the bishop soon found a passionate supporter in statham, who used "the witness" and his position as the special correspondent for the london "daily news" to attack what he referred to as "the official clique". unfortunately, in the midst of this struggle on behalf of the embattled chief, the fact that statham had served a jail term in england for embezzlement came to light and was used by his opponents to discredit him. on top of this a report in "the witness," based on usuthu sources describing an alleged attack launched by john shepstone of the natal native affairs department on the "defenceless" supporters of cetshwayo at a meeting in eshowe, led to statham facing a libel suit brought against him by shepstone. the matter had still not been fully resolved by the time statham left "the witness" in 1887.