The emergence of a photograph of President Jacob Zuma’s son with a suspected underworld boss has added extra interest to the alleged gangster’s bail hearing‚ which resumes in Cape Town on Thursday.

The photograph of Duduzane Zuma and Nafiz Modack was taken at a Cape Town hotel in October‚ News24 reported on Wednesday. It shows the two men sitting at a table and smiling.

Modack and four other men — Colin Booysen‚ Ashley Fields‚ Jacques Cronje‚ and Carl Lakay — were arrested on an extortion charge on December 15 and are applying for bail in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.

The bail hearing is the prelude to what is expected to become South Africa's biggest organised crime trial.

The investigating officer in the case‚ Colonel Charl Kinnear‚ has testified that Modack’s gang has connections to senior politicians‚ including members of the Zuma family.

Kinnear has also named at least four high-ranking police officers who he alleged to be under Modack’s “influence”.

The bail hearing was expected to continue on Thursday without celebrity lawyer Pete Mihalik‚ whom Kinnear has implicated in the alleged syndicate’s activities.

The state is trying to prevent the men from getting bail because it fears they will interfere with witnesses and are a “threat to society”.