"You committed your newspaper, a widely read and respected news paper, to smut."

These were the final words of damnation hurled at former City Press editor Vusi Mona by evidence leader Kessie Naidu at the Hefer Commission of Inquiry into allegations that Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka had been an apartheid spy.

Naidu uttered these words in a disgusted tone after vigorously cross-examining Mona, who had approved the publication of the City Press report "Was Bulelani Ngcuka a Spy?"

It was in the course of Naidu's cross-examination that Mona conceded that his handling of this report, as well as follow-ups, had been an exercise in recklessness.

Mona's two days at the commission turned into a humiliating public trial of the editor who oversaw the publication of the reports that started the controversy.

After Judge Joos Hefer indicated that he would allow cross-examination on the way Mona handled his responsibilities, the former editor's journalistic integrity was at the mercy of Naidu, Norman Arendse, legal council for Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, as well Marumo Moerane, legal council for Ngcuka.

At a stage during the proceedings a clearly irritated Hefer asked Mona whether he knew that he was testifying under oath.

Mona : Yes

Hefer : Do you know what the truth is?

Mona : Yes

Hefer : Do you know what the whole truth is?

Mona : Yes

But it was his admissions under cross-examination that accounted for the most damaging accusations hurled at Mona. It enabled Arendse to call him reckless.

It allowed Naidu to accuse him of publishing smut.

It enabled Moerane to say to him "You are a disgrace to journalism!"

Mona orginally came to Bloemfontein to acquaint the Hefer Commission with what transpired at the off- the-record briefing held for black editors by Ngcuka early in September.

He told the judge that he had been "disturbed" by the racist remark against Indians Ngcuka made at the briefing, by Ngcuka's unconstitutional violation of the privacy of the persons whose names he mentioned at the briefing as well as Ngcuka's viola tion of his legal powers.

He admitted under cross-examination that the version of the meeting he recorded in his notebook, after the event, was not a true reflection of what transpired.

He omitted, for example, to record the fact that Ngcuka had told the editors that he had not been an apartheid spy.

This admission elicited a sarcastic interjection from the judge "So you thought that you'd give it a pass that he denied that he was a spy?"

Mona was also unable to explain a series of similarities between his notes, a report about the briefing that appeared in the Business Day, an anonymous letter signed only by "concerned citizens" and the report he wrote to the public protector to complain about what transpired at the briefing. He denied that he was the author of the anonymous document and that he gave his notes to the Business Day.

Mona admitted that he had not "applied" his "mind" to the journalastic rules applicable to the verification of information before reports are published.

He conceded that he had not considered the motivation of former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy, who according to Naidu, appeared to be "hell-bent" on getting the story into print. He had not contacted her editor at the Sunday Times who refused to publish the story and he had not asked why this was the case.

He admitted that he made no enquiry into the validity of the information presented to him by Ranjeni and Elias Maluleke of City Press, published it at face value and, to boot, relied on "confirmation" of the information by "killer" and "liar" Gideon Nieuwoudt, a former Eastern Cape security cop.

He admitted that the City Press sub-heading to the report of September 7, implying that Ngcuka had been Agent RS452, could not, in fact, have been deduced from the documents available to Ranjeni and Maluleke.

He furthermore admitted that the first paragraph of a subsequent City Press report, dealing with an erroneous assumption that Ngcuka stood trial on treason charges instead of the true fact that he was sent to jail for refusing to give evidence at the time when he was awarded a passport, was incorrect and not verified.

Moerane told Mona that he published the story in haste because he knew that there were other newspapers who also had the information.

With acknowledgements to Mariechen Waldner and the City Press.