Tomorrow Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik will finally be asked to prove their allegation that prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy. S'THEMBISO MSOMI looks at the week ahead

Taking The Stand: Mac Maharaj, foreground, and Mo Shaik will start giving evidence at the Hefer commission tomorrow Picture: Sydney Seshibedi

'In time, all those who feel free to charge others in our ranks with having been agents of apartheid will have to answer for the charges they have made. The masses of our people will not forgive them for what they are trying to do, to undermine our country's movement forward . . . ' - President Thabo Mbeki, October 2003

After weeks of false starts, the Hefer commission finally looks set to shift into gear when former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj and Department of Foreign Affairs special adviser Mo Shaik start giving evidence tomorrow.

Commission spokesman John Bacon said all of the coming week had been set aside for Maharaj and Shaik to present their 500 pages of testimony submitted to the commission's evidence leader, Kessie Naidu.

The commission, headed by Judge Joos Hefer, was set up by President Thabo Mbeki to investigate claims that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka spied for the apartheid government and that he was abusing his position as head of the prosecuting directorate to settle old scores with ANC members who once investigated him.

The allegations were first made in a City Press article and were confirmed by both Maharaj and Shaik in various television and radio interviews.

The article claimed that Ngcuka might have been a security spy in the 1980s operating under the code name RS 452. Former Eastern Cape-based lawyer Vanessa Brereton has since publicly stated that she, and not Ngcuka, was an agent operating under that code name.

In a dramatic turn of events this week, Mbeki issued amended terms of reference for the commission which, among other things, clearly identified Maharaj and Shaik as Ngcuka's main accusers.

This is despite claims by Shaik's lawyers that the two were not the instigators of the allegations but merely "confirmed" information that was already in the public domain when they were approached by journalists.

And a letter from the presidency's director-general, Frank Chikane, to Judge Hefer seems to have dealt a further blow to Maharaj and Shaik.

In the letter, Chikane absolves the country's intelligence agencies of the responsibility of confirming or denying whether Ngcuka was an agent or not, arguing that if these agencies had such information, Mbeki would have had access to it and wouldn't have needed to appoint a commission.

Judge Hefer this week withdrew subpoenas compelling the National Intelligence Agency and other security agencies to hand over documents that might have proven whether Ngcuka was listed as an agent. The burden of proof now squarely rests on Maharaj and Shaik's shoulders.

But the commission could still hit a snag if Shaik refuses to testify on the grounds that doing so might result in him being prosecuted.

Shaik appeared on a television programme in September waving a document he claimed proved allegations that the ANC intelligence's Project Bible investigated Ngcuka for alleged spy activities as RS 452.

George Bizos, appearing on behalf of the intelligence agencies , warned that unauthorised possession of classified documents constituted a crime.

The questions Mac and Mo must answer

1. HOW did they come to possess the classified spy reports of agent RS 452?

2. What made them believe that RS 452 was not Bulelani Ngcuka but a "false flag" to cover up his spying?

3. Why didn't they air their belief that Ngcuka was a spy some years ago when they first came to believe this?

4. Why did the ANC government appoint Ngcuka despite an "ANC investigation" finding that he was a spy?

5. Why did they try to gather evidence on Ngcuka well after publicly claiming the case had been proved?

With acknowledgements to S'thembiso Msomi and the Sunday Times.