Even the staunchest supporter of President Thabo Mbeki's appointment of the Hefer commission would have had his doubts as the merry-go-round that has characterised the commission from inception continued unabated this week.

When Mbeki appointed retired judge Joos Hefer in September to head the investigation into whether National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid-era spy, he expected the investigation to be concluded within four weeks.

We are well into the second month and the commission is far from concluding whether Ngcuka was an apartheid-government spy in the 1980s and whether he now abuses his powers as the head of the elite investigation unit, the Scorpions, to persecute ANC members who allegedly investigated his spying activities.

All eyes will undoubtedly be on his chief accusers - former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj and former intelligence agent Mo Shaik - tomorrow in Bloemfontein where they are scheduled to provide the commission with evidence against Ngcuka.

The events of the past three weeks suggest they may not be able to do so without risking prosecution for the contravention of legislation relating to the unlawful disclosure of state secrets.

Arguing before Hefer on Wednesday on why intelligence services should not be obliged to hand over documents relating to informers and agents, advocate George Bizos said the agencies had not granted Shaik permission to testify but that he should "follow his conscience".

Shaik appeared on an e.tv programme in September with documents that allegedly contained evidence that Ngcuka worked for the apartheid security forces as a spy.

The documents were said to belong to the National Intelligence Service, which means they are classified and anyone who has them in his or her possession without permission could face 10 years in prison.

But with the intelligence services and journalists who first wrote the story - which alleged Ngcuka was once investigated by ANC intelligence for being a spy - reluctant to testify, the ball is firmly in Shaik and Maharaj's court.

The chaos and confusion that has marked the process has helped obfuscate the significance of Mbeki's decision to appoint the commission.

In 1996 when Bantu Holomisa, who was then a deputy minister and a high-ranking ANC national executive committee member, appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and accused then Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau of corruption, the ANC responded by expelling Holomisa from the party.

His claim related to the period when Sigcau was still leader of the Transkei bantustan government, before she joined the ANC.

No commission was set up to investigate Holomisa's damning allegations against the Cabinet minister. They were dealt with as a purely ANC matter, despite the fact that a dark cloud had been cast over Sigcau's suitability to hold office.

But nine years into democracy, Mbeki seems to be changing his approach.

He has not viewed the Ngcuka versus Maharaj and Shaik saga as merely an internal ANC spat that needs to be dealt with by party structures.

His concern, he recently stated, is to protect the integrity of one of the most important state institutions.

If Ngcuka was an apartheid spy and is abusing his office to get back at those who investigated him in the past, South Africa needs to know, Mbeki has argued.

It was for the same reason that he amended the terms of reference of the commission to include a probe into Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's past.

But the investigation against Maduna was dropped this week, when it became clear there was no case against him.

Mbeki's chosen path in the Ngcuka saga - said to have been proposed by Ngcuka himself, confident that a commission would clear his name - raises a number of questions.

Does the appointment of the commission mark the ruling party's break with the past culture of underground politics, where rumour-mongering and character assassination were key weapons with which to destroy political opponents?

Mbeki and numerous other high-ranking ANC leaders are said to have been victims of this rumour-mongering at one stage or another during their days in exile.

Will every serious allegation made against an individual holding high office in government and other state institutions be tested in public via commissions of inquiry?

If so, why has a commission not been instituted to investigate serious allegations of corruption connected to the arms deal?

After all, some of the people implicated in the alleged acts of corruption hold key government positions.

What is clear is that Mbeki's approach to the Ngcuka saga would have caught many within ANC ranks - who are used to making unsubstantiated remarks against their opponents without demands for proof - totally off-guard.

With acknowledgements to S' thembiso Msomi and the Sunday Times.