The Hefer commission of inquiry into spying allegations against prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka got down to work in earnest yesterday, issuing several subpoenas and warning that it was an offence to refuse to testify.

Former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy confirmed yesterday that she had been issued a subpoena by the commission, which is tasked with testing allegations that Ngcuka, the national director of public prosecutions, was an apartheid spy.

Munusamy, who said previously she would not testify on principle because protecting journalistic sources was a paramount consideration, said she was taking legal advice.

She was the co-author of an article in City Press newspaper, which first published the allegation that Ngcuka had been investigated in the late 1980s as possibly being a spy.

She resigned from the Sunday Times after admitting she had passed on documents to City Press purporting to show that Ngcuka was investigated in terms of Project Bible, an African National Congress (ANC) effort to identify spies in the organisation.

Ngcuka has rejected the allegations.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the head of the ANC's intelligence wing in exile, has indicated he would testify if called on to do so. Former transport minister Mac Maharaj and the former head of Project Bible, Mo Shaik, are also expected to testify.

Secretary to the commission John Bacon said yesterday that subpoenaed witnesses would be obliged to testify before the commission in terms of the commission's founding legislation.

But he pointed out that the regulations made provision for "in camera" hearings, and the commission could order that names mentioned before it should not be published.

Witnesses were further protected by a provision in the commission's terms of reference that indemnified those appearing before it from prosecution.

The right to refuse to answer questions on the grounds that they could incriminate the witness was explicitly excluded by the commission's regulations.

Bacon said the body's terms of reference were somewhat similar to those of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in that establishing the facts was preferred to prosecution.

With acknowledgements to Tim Cohen and the Business Day.