Mac Maharaj has testified in Bloemfontein today that Mo Shaik had evidence of Bulelani Ngcuka being a spy as early as 1989.

It was the testimony everyone had been waiting to hear since President Thabo Mbeki approved the setting up of the Hefer Commission in September to investigate allegations made by Maharaj and Shaik that Ngcuka was an agent for the apartheid government.

He said Shaik, then head of ANC intelligence and now a special adviser to the department of foreign affairs, had told him before 1989 that there was a high-ranking spy in the ANC.

By late 1989 or early 1990, Shaik reported to Maharaj that he thought he had sufficient information to show that, in all probability, Ngcuka was an operative.

Earlier, Stephen Joseph SC, counsel for Maharaj and Shaik, told Judge Joos Hefer: "We are investigated by the national director of public prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, today because 20 years ago we investigated him for being an apartheid spy."

The drama of today's testimony started with a rumpus aboard an aircraft flying from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein last night, when Joseph told their lawyer, Yunis Shaik, that he had seen their top secret documentation and planned testimony in the hands of a Scorpions member sitting at the back of the aircraft. Yunis Shaik and his clients were angry that their papers had been given to the "opposition" by Hefer Commission staff.

In testimony this morning, Joseph said the "saga" began in August 2001 when a search warrant was issued by a judge for the Scorpions to pursue their investigations into a loan by Schabir Shaik and a trip to Disneyland.

Joseph said the commission must start by looking at a search warrant issued for the premises of Schabir Shaik and Nkobi Holdings which was included in the arms deal investigation.

He told the commission the search warrant also allowed the Scorpions to search for documents relating to a certain Mr X and a "loan or other benefit" of R500 000 that was received by him (Mr X). "Mr X is a reference to Deputy President Jacob Zuma," Joseph said.

Zuma was a head of ANC Intelligence in the apartheid era.

Joseph said information from this investigation had been leaked to the media and that this had resulted in Maharaj being contacted by a reporter from the Sunday Times to answer allegations of corruption relating to tenders for the national card driving licences and the M3 tollroad.

He said this information had been leaked to the media by Ngcuka's office, and he cited a telephone call between The Star's deputy editor, Jovial Rantao, and Maharaj as proof of this.

"Maharaj denied allegations that he was corrupt with the contempt they deserved," Joseph said. He said his client also received information about a briefing between Ngcuka and several journalists in which Ngcuka illegally divulged information.

Maharaj said he was first told that he was the subject of a government agency investigation in a call from a Sunday Times journalist.

Maharaj said he phoned Ngcuka and told him about the phone call. Maharaj said Ngcuka reassured him that he had concluded his investigations and had found no evidence of corruption or bribery.

Maharaj added that he was confident that he would be cleared, but he was concerned about the implications for his work at First Rand.

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin, Estelle Ellis, Caiphus Kgosana, Melanie-Anne Feris, Sapa and the Daily News.