Former ANC intelligence operative Mo Shaik was due to give evidence on Thursday. Much of his testimony and cross-examination were set to deal with the MJK Report.

This is an intelligence document his unit compiled in 1989 and, according to his counsel, Steven Joseph, "reconstructed" by Shaik in December 2002.

Around this time, his brother Schabir Shaik was under investigation by Bulelani Ngcuka's Scorpions unit in connection with the country's multibillion-rand arms deal.

According to former transport minister Mac Maharaj, Mo Shaik gave this document to former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy.

It formed the basis of an article claiming that Ngcuka had been investigated as a spy, which her then editor, Mathatha Tsedu, refused to publish. Its contents were then published in City Press in an article written by Elias Maluleka.

It seems the publication of this article spurred President Thabo Mbeki into appointing the Hefer Commission to probe whether Ngcuka was a spy for the apartheid government.

This week Maharaj conceded that this report didn't prove unequivocally that Ngcuka was a spy.

What follows is an edited version of it:

The Activities of a Source within ANC Structures: Source RS452

An ANC underground unit operating from within the country received information from paid Security Branch sources in the form of reports compiled by the Security Branch.

These reports contained, among other information, reports about the activities of agents within the liberation movements, and in particular from those agents within the ANC.

For the purposes of record, the coding systems of the agents were changed in order to avoid disclosure in the event of interception by the apartheid state security forces.

Source IMM001 was registered with the Security Branch as RS452. It should be mentioned that an RS-agent classification referred to a highly placed source that required special handling procedures or to an infiltration of a security force member into a particular target group.

Lieutenant KZ Edwards handled agent RS452 from the Eastern Cape area. KZ Edwards was, at that time, a senior member of the Security Branch national management structures.

There are two entries on our database corresponding to the activities of agent RS452. One report covers the activity of Nadel (National Association of Democratic Lawyers) and the other covers the formation of the Henk van Handel Trust.

The reporting period of both reports is restricted to February 1988. No report before or after this day is in our receipt.

The reports would indicate that the source was very close to the formation of the trust itself. It was also clear that the source had inside thinking to the actual purpose of the trust.

On analysis of both the reports of RS452, and based on the experience we collected at the time, we used the following criteria in pursuit of possible identification of the source :

A senior person to warrant classification of RS-status;
The necessity of special handling procedures;
The source is from the legal fraternity who was involved with the Henk van Handel Trust and Nadel, and who had attended a particular meeting of Nadel.
The source is either from the Eastern Cape or known to the handler who comes from the Eastern Cape area, but who most probably works in the Cape Town area;
The source had access to ANC thinking and most probably was an ANC member;
The handler of the source was careful not to include all reports of the source in the official database of the Security Branch system.

Applying these criteria to the reports at hand, and by a process of elimination, the conclusion reached was that there existed a reasonable basis to investigate that BN (Bulelani Ngcuka) as a possibility.

Our investigation revealed that BN returned to South Africa at the end of 1987 after spending some time at the

International Labour Organisation in Geneva; that he indeed was involved in Nadel and attended that particular meeting (in Port Elizabeth); that he was working out of Cape Town; and, more importantly, was involved in the setting up of the Henk van Handel Trust.

BN is listed as a trustee of the Henk van Handel Trust. However, it would appear that he was not a trustee of the trust.

All of the above led us to the conclusion that there was a reasonable basis to suspect that BN was most probably source RS452.

However, new information has recently come to light:

It would appear that, prior to working for the Security Branch in the Eastern Cape, Edwards worked for the National Intelligence Service. During the time he worked for the NIS, he was close to NIS members Morris van Greunen and Hennie Roodt. The latter assumed the directorship of the NIS in the late 1980s.

Information provided indicates that BN was recruited by Morris van Greunen in the 1970s as an NIS source. It is further stated that the NIS funded BN's tertiary education studies. This recruitment was known to K Z Edwards.

Further confirmation of Ngcuka's role in the NIS occurred as a result of a trip he made to Dakar as part of Idasa's sponsored talks with the ANC in the early 1989.

It is stated that, as a result of his political activities, the Security Branch endorsed a travel restriction on his passport. Thus, in order for BN to travel on the Idasa trip, the NIS approached the Security Branch with a view to remove the travel restriction, on the basis that Ngcuka worked for the NIS. This was done and this information has been confirmed.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis, Jeremy Gordin and The Star.