Pretoria - Deputy president Jacob Zuma will be "wasting his time" if he complies with the Scorpions' request to ask the Hefer commission to investigate events at an information session for newspaper editors, organised by the national director of public prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka.

This opinion comes from the horse's mouth. Judge Joos Hefer, who is heading up the one-man commission into allegations about Ngcuka, said the meeting with the editors falls outside the scope of his directive.

"The current controversy centres round the meeting with the editors.

It is not my instruction to investigate that.

If the deputy president wanted to provide information about it, it would be a waste of time. I am only investigating allegations of espionage," Hefer said on Wednesday.

The latest events come after Zuma insisted again on Monday that the Scorpions were involved in an orchestrated smear campaign against him.

The Scorpions responded by inviting Zuma to take up the issue with the Hefer commission. Zuma accepted the challenge.

Hefer was appointed to investigate claims that Ngcuka acted as an apartheid government spy before 1994.

With acknowledgements to Jan-Jan Joubert and Die Burger.