A former comrade-in-arms of prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka may on Wednesday become the Hefer Commission's first witness to testify publicly.

Commission secretary John Bacon said on Tuesday that Patrick Ntobeko "Ntobs" Maqubela would be called to the stand when Justice Joos Hefer resumed public hearings in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

Ngcuka spent years in prison during the apartheid era reportedly for refusing to testify against Maqubela, a fellow African National Congress member and now a Johannesburg lawyer.

Maqubela's name surfaced in a City Press report in September which said that the apartheid government had granted Ngcuka security clearance and a passport in 1981.

At the time he was in custody for his role in alleged acts of sabotage and high treason relating to the trial of Maqubela and two others.

Five months after Ngcuka's release, he allegedly used the passport to go to Switzerland, where he joined his wife.

Ngcuka's response to the City Press report was that he had obtained the passport as a result of an administrative error by apartheid officials.

Lawyer Glen Goosen, a former chairperson of the anti-apartheid Port Elizabeth Action Committee during the struggle era, was also on this week's list of witnesses to be called, Bacon confirmed.

Goosen attended the 1989 meeting of 10 white activists in a Port Elizabeth flat that sparked the hunt for the police spy codenamed RS452, now revealed as Eastern Cape human rights lawyer Vanessa Brereton, and not Ngcuka.

She sent reports to her handlers on the meeting.

In 1989, she represented activists in court cases while giving information to the security police on the activities of the "white left".

Meanwhile Judge Hefer has undertaken to give reasons on Wednesday for forcing journalist Ranjeni Munusamy to testify before his commission.

Munusamy, main author of the first newspaper report on spying allegations against Ngcuka, has indicated she will appeal to the high court against his decision.

On Friday, George Bizos SC is expected to appear before the commission on behalf of intelligence agencies.

The National Intelligence Agency and the South African Secret Service reportedly indicated earlier that they would not provide the commission with certain intelligence files. They said it could compromise intelligence-gathering.

Ngcuka's main accusers, former ANC intelligence operatives Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik, say the files are vital to support their testimony.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Cape Argus.