Bloemfontein - "We are not saying the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, was apartheid agent RS452."

This was the message sent to the Hefer Commission today by former transport minister Mac Maharaj and ANC Intelligence operative Mo Shaik, key commission witnesses due to testify next month. They were absent from the hearing in the Supreme Court of Appeal today.

Ngcuka today made his first appearance at the commission. Yesterday, the Daily News revealed the identity of agent RS452 as being human rights lawyer Vanessa Brereton.

The leader of the evidence, Kessie Naidu SC said today that he asked Maharaj and Shaik's lawyer Unis Sheik if his clients persisted in their contention that Ngcuka was agent RS542. "Shaik said that it was not his clients' contention," Naidu told the commission.

Judge Hefer today also gave his reasons for compelling former Sunday Times journalist Ranjen Munusamy to give evidence.

He said although he believed in freedom of the press and the right to freedom of expression, this did not necessarily mean that no journalist can give evidence.

With acknowledgements to Estell Ellis and the Daily News.