Former transport minister Mac Maharaj and ANC intelligence operative Mo Shaik believe they need "truckloads full of top-secret documents" to prove their claims that Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid-era spy.

Tempers frayed as the first full day of the Hefer Commission of Inquiry into the allegations against National Director of Public Prosecutions Ngcuka, and that Justice Minister Penuell Maduna had also incurred "obligations to the apartheid regime", drew to a close yesterday.

It was after lunchtime, when the commission had time for submissions, that sparks flew in Bloemfontein's Palace of Justice.

Hands were thrown up in desperation and the air in Court 1 became thick with allegations.

Yunis Shaik, attorney for his brother Mo and Maharaj, complained to Judge Joos Hefer that the commission was not helping his clients to get the documents they needed.

"The files they want will have to be brought to the commission by trucks," the evidence leader, advocate Kessie Naidu, said. "They gave us an open-ended request. If they give us a specific request, we will try to comply," he fumed.

This drew an angry response from Yunis Shaik, which bordered on accusing commission staff of not knowing what they were doing.

Naidu said that as far as he recalled, Mo Shaik had some documents from which he had read during a television interview, and if he did not hand them over soon, he would be subpoenaed to do so. This called for more drama from Yunis Shaik.

Shaik later apologised for his intemperate language, saying it had been a long day.

But in his 10-minute question session with the media afterwards, Judge Hefer could still smile, although he acknowledged the difficulty of the commission's work.

He noted that all of the government security agencies, from the police to intelligence units, had retained the services of their own lawyers.

Judge Hefer also ruled yesterday that former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy become the first journalist to be compelled to give evidence since the present constitution was introduced. Munusamy was, however, granted permission to have the ruling reviewed.

Munusamy, who looked quite relaxed before the judge's ruling, became visibly quieter and more tense afterwards.

Earlier, Raymond Louw of the SA National Editors' Forum said that compelling Munusamy to give evidence would be contrary to the constitution and an inroad on press freedom. Her counsel, John Campbell, made the same argument, adding that in any case Munusamy was merely a journalist and had no first-hand information.

Counsel for Ngcuka, Marumo Moerane SC, said they knew who Munusamy's sources were.

He argued that she should not be entitled to claim protection as a journalist because "she turned herself into a source when she gave the story to a rival newspaper".

The commission will resume hearings on Wednesday.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis, Jeremy Gordin, Makhudu Sefara and The Star.