Bloemfontein - Spying allegations against chief prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka may have been motivated by his Scorpions unit's corruption investigation against ANC stalwart Mac Maharaj, the Hefer Commission heard yesterday.

Ngcuka's former comrade-in-arms, Patrick Ntobeko (Ntobs) Maqubela, said this might have been the reason behind "sudden" allegations that Ngcuka had been an apartheid spy.

Maqubela agreed with Ngcuka's counsel, Morumo Moerane, SC, that the allegations represented "a strange correlation of circumstances and time".

Maharaj and foreign affairs adviser Mo Shaik's allegations were "incredible", Maqubela said.

Scorpions spokesman Sipho Ngwena confirmed afterwards that the investigation of allegations of corruption against Maharaj and his wife, Zarina, was continuing. The investigation also involved Shaik's brother, Schabir, and Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

During the early 1980s Ngcuka spent three years in jail for refusing to testify against fellow activist Maqubela. Maqubela and two others were convicted of high treason and received long sentences.

Maqubela, an attorney, said he was confident Ngcuka had not "sold them out".

He knew who had informed on their operation, he said. The person had since died, but naming him would be immoral as the man's family was alive.

Also, the ANC decided in 1993 that all issues around informers must be left in the past. Its view was that "those things" must not be used to disrupt processes today.

The informant was not among those involved in the Hefer Commission's proceedings, Maqubela said.

He and Ngcuka came to be "brothers" after starting their articles together in 1978 in Durban. They shared a house and later worked for the same firm. Although they worked for the then-banned ANC, Ngcuka did not know the specifics of Maqubela's activities.

"I had instructors in Swaziland and his were in Lesotho. He worked more on propaganda and I more on the military side."

Maharaj and Shaik were ANC intelligence operatives.

Earlier Justice Joos Hefer gave reasons for his decision to order journalist Ranjeni Munusamy to testify before him. He said the constitution did not grant immunity to every journalist in all circumstances.

"A journalist, like any other person, (is) obliged to testify, but is entitled to refuse to answer any particular question against which there is a valid objection."

Munusamy, the main author of a newspaper report in which the allegations against Ngcuka were first made public, refused last week to take the stand. She based her objection on the constitutional rights to freedom of the press and the freedom to gather and impart information and said testifying would disclose her confidential sources.

Judge Hefer said each case and every claim to confidentiality on this ground had to be decided on its merits.

He said he had not ruled that Munusamy would have to disclose her sources if she testified.

With acknowledgements to Marlene Smith, Sapa and the Cape Times.