Branch and regional structures of the African National Congress (ANC) are questioning the decision of their president, Thabo Mbeki, to use a legal route to resolve a party problem.

Some members and leaders say the appointment of a commission of inquiry into allegations that national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy was shortsighted and ill-advised.

They are concerned that Mbeki failed to provide leadership or seek "a political solution to a political problem" which threatens to divide the party.

Mbeki's decision has confused members, especially because he had argued strongly against the naming of spies in his weekly letter on the ANC's website.

"A determined effort is being made to oblige our movement and government to release names of members of the ANC and our government who allegedly served as agents of the secret intelligence services of the apartheid regime," Mbeki wrote earlier this month.

He said that in 1993 representatives at negotiations agreed that everyone had the responsibility "to let bygones be bygones".

And yet, by accepting Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's recommendation to establish the Hefer commission, party insiders believe Mbeki has unwittingly conceded to the divisive tactics of former transport minister Mac Maharaj and foreign affairs official Mo Shaik, who fingered Ngcuka as a spy.

Mbeki explained his strategy in his letter the commission could embarrass those who felt free to charge others in the ANC's ranks with being agents of apartheid.

"The masses will not forgive them for what they are trying to do," he wrote.

Maharaj's allegations that Ngcuka was a spy have angered and saddened many ANC stalwarts who had worked with Maharaj for decades. They believe that Mbeki should have cracked the whip there and then, rather than letting the issue spiral out of control.

ANC members are concerned that the commission's work will not be completed for some time, because the intelligence community is reluctant to provide it with evidence Maharaj and Shaik have demanded.

Although Deputy President Jacob Zuma has not been directly implicated in the spy saga, he has also questioned Ngcuka's conduct. ANC members say his background as former head of the ANC's intelligence unit raises suspicions that he influenced Maharaj's spy allegations. Some senior members have not ruled out the possibility of Zuma testifying at the commission in favour of Maharaj.

Some national executive members say they were expecting more than a legal battle to solve the problem of Maharaj's divisiveness. ANC members were expelled for sowing division in the past and a "decisive political solution" is provided for in the party's constitution.

They fear the commission's outcome could be exactly what the ANC had sought to avoid: tearing the liberation movement apart.

With elections looming, the ANC seems united on one issue: that the divisions be resolved. A senior ANC member called for "a proactive political manoeuvring", similar to the manner in which provincial differences caused by battles for premiership were solved; that is, the removal of leaders who "wilfully label whomsoever they wish as secret agents of the apartheid system".

With acknowledgements to Hopewell Radebe and the Business Day.