Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik appeared to distance themselves on Wednesday from allegations that prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka was security police agent RS452.

The Hefer Commission evidence leader, Kessie Naidu, said at the hearing this morning that he had asked Maharaj's and Shaik's lawyer Yunis Sheik whether his clients persisted in their contention that Ngcuka was agent RS542.

"Sheik said that it was not his clients' contention," Naidu told the commission.

Maharaj and Shaik both appeared on national television recently to back up a City Press report that the most likely person to have been agent RS452 was Ngcuka.

The Hefer Commission was established in September as a result of these claims.

Maharaj and Shaik were absent from the hearing in the Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

But Ngcuka made his first appearance at the commission on Wednesday.

On Tuesday former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer Vanessa Brereton was revealed as agent RS452.

Now living in Britain, she decided to confess her dual role as spy row reports hinted at her identity.

The commission will also probe whether Ngcuka or Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna had abused the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions "due to obligations to the apartheid government".

Naidu told the commission that he had told Unis Shaik on Saturday who the commission intended calling.

He said witnesses would give evidence of interest to Maharaj and Mo Shaik. Despite this, there was no one present to cross-examine witnesses.

Mo Shaik and Maharaj asked the commission for financial help to secure their attendance.

The first witness called by the commission was attorney Thobeko Maqubela. He met Ngcuka in 1978 when both were articled to lawyers in Durban.

He said he and Ngcuka had worked underground for the ANC, but Ngcuka was not involved on the military side. Ngcuka had not known of his activities.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Argus.