The battle-weary African National Congress is keeping mum about Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's shock decision to quit government after next year's election.

"There's no response at all," ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said in reaction to the minister's blunt admission that "the ANC is hurting badly" because of the wrangle between Deputy President Jacob Zuma and National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.

Just days after President Thabo Mbeki gave the go-ahead for the Hefer Commission of Inquiry - which had been created to probe claims that Ngcuka was an apartheid spy - to put the spotlight on Maduna as well, the embattled justice minister announced that he would be standing down at the end of his term of office.

In an exclusive interview with Independent Newspapers at the weekend, Maduna said he would not be available to serve in Mbeki's cabinet after the general election.

"I told the president that my family are saying I should resign because they can't take it any longer," Maduna said. Mbeki's office indicated yesterday that the final decision lay with Maduna and the ANC.

"This is a matter for minister Maduna and the ANC to grapple with over the next few months," presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said in reference to the party's internal list-process to decide who should represent it in parliament after the election.

But the ruling party - besieged by in-fighting over the fallout of the Scorpions' investigation into Zuma - went to ground in the wake of Maduna's announcement.

The ANC is reeling after months of running battles between those who feel strongly that Scorpions boss Ngcuka, supported by Maduna, deliberately vilified Zuma by claiming that there was a prima facie case of corruption against him relating to bribery in the arms deal, and those who feel that Ngcuka was within his rights to say so without charging the deputy president.

Zuma - also deputy president of the ANC - has been at war with Ngcuka for dragging his name through the mud without bringing charges against him.

Said Maduna: "But I don't care anymore what this (battle) is doing. It has already done a lot of damage. Families are suffering. They can't take it any longer. I will serve in the ANC in any other capacity, even as a floor-sweeper."

However, Maduna said he would not quit immediately, prompting the official opposition to call on him to "step aside now".

"I will serve my full term but I will not stand again," Maduna said.

Democratic Alliance MP Sheila Camerer said: "Maduna should not wait for the Hefer Commission to start its work before he steps aside. He should rather step down now, even if it is temporary leave of absence."

But Khumalo dismissed Camerer's call and questioned its motives. "There is no need for minister Maduna to leave," the presidential spokesperson said.

Maduna's threats came at the end of a week which saw him in the glare of media attention, with Mbeki's broadened brief to Judge Joos Hefer and charges by a top Department of Justice official that Maduna was corrupt.

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Michaels and The Star.