The suggestion that Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy must rank as one of the most belated, transparent and desperate smear campaigns against anyone in SA since Magnus Malan tried to paint Namibian lawyer Anton Lubowski as a military intelligence spy in the 1980s.

This reeks of spectacular infighting within the African National Congress (ANC) elite. That it comes at the height of the struggle between Ngcuka, the Shaiks, Jacob Zuma and the Maharaj s, and was not raised when Ngcuka was considered for his position, makes the suggestion seem even more suspect and desperate.

Alas for the ANC, they have opened up another can of worms. It was long suspected in United Democratic Front and ANC circles that some ANC members of Western Cape's legislature might have been collaborators.

That the leak about Ngcuka's supposed spying activities was a result of information gleaned from documents and reports from ANC-in-exile investigations into spying confirms that such reports exist. The ANC should make them public. Failing that a Promotion of Access to Information Act request should be made to out the documents into the public domain.

If the ANC releases these documents we will be able to see who were collaborators with the apartheid regime and clear the names of others who still have a cloud over them.

Mike Saunders
Cape Town

With acknowledgements to Mike Saunders and Business Day.