The country's two major law enforcement agencies appear to be heading for a showdown after African National Congress veteran and former transport minister Mac Maharaj drew the police into the growing political storm around Deputy President Jacob Zuma and the arms deal investigation.

By late on Saturday there was no indication of when Zuma would answer the 35 questions put to him by the Scorpions. Zuma had said he would answer them as soon as possible.

Maharaj has asked the police to investigate a complaint against the Scorpions in what has now become a three-way tussle between Zuma, the Scorpions under national director of prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and the South African Police Services (SAPS).

The move by Maharaj followed a double onslaught against the Scorpions and Ngcuka by Zuma - first in a statement following last weekend's leak of the Scorpions' questions to Zuma and on Thursday in a lengthy statement detailing his lawyers' interaction with the national prosecuting authority.

In the correspondence between them, it appeared that the relationship between Zuma and Ngcuka is at an all-time low.

Both Zuma and the Scorpions declined to comment further on Saturday following an earlier dispute about whether they had set a deadline of last Thursday night for the submission of Zuma's answers.

Despite a government statement distancing itself from a suggestion by President Thabo Mbeki earlier in the week that the Scorpions might be transformed into a specialised police unit under the SAPS to resolve "institutional tensions" between the two, the Zuma camp appeared to be turning increasingly to the police and the judicial system to seek redress.

Zuma's public attack on the Scorpions came in the week that the investigation into alleged corruption in the multi-billion-rand arms deal gained momentum after Scorpions investigators grilled Zuma's financial adviser Schabir Shaik for more than six hours.

It is understood that the questioning was a turning-point in the protracted investigations into arms deal corruption and alleged corruption in state contracts worth more than a billion rand.

Shaik, who is on holiday in Mauritius after his gruelling session with the Scorpions, has been asked to provide further details on companies and highly placed people involved in corruption. It is understood that he may face another grilling based on the new information.

As matters stood at the end of the week, the Scorpions appeared to be lying low after the broadside by Zuma who accused the crack anti-corruption unit of consistently leaking to the media information about their investigation into his affairs.

The Scorpions have asked Zuma to answer a list of questions including allegations that he solicited a R500 000 bribe from a French company involved in the arms deal.

On Tuesday, Mbeki raised questions about the location of the Scorpions, citing "institutional tensions" between the Scorpions and the police. Mbeki went as far as suggesting that the Scorpions might have to be transformed into a specialised unit under the jurisdiction of the SAPS.

But the government distanced itself from this, with the government communication and information system (GCIS) saying in a briefing note yesterday there would be no Scorpions-SAPS merger.

"The factors that motivated the establishment of a special investigative agency, the Scorpions, have not changed. Therefore the agency will not be dissolved. This question does not arise at all," the GCIS said.

It is known that national police commissioner Jackie Selebi does not count the Scorpions among his best friends, while the rivalry between them and the police is well documented.

With acknowledgements to Andre Koopman, John Battersby and the Weekend Sunday Argus.