Send in the Shaiks. This is what the agreement, brokered at the Hefer commission in Bloemfontein this week, demanded in no uncertain terms.

And this is what will happen when the commission resumes its proceedings tomorrow morning. Mo Shaik, assisted by Yunis Shaik, his brother and legal representative, will be sent into Hefer's courtroom to back allegations that Ngcuka had been an apartheid spy.

Shaik and Ngcuka's second main accuser, Mac Maharaj, were both involved in ANC intelligence operations in the struggle era. Shaik also served as a member of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Shaik and Maharaj will enter the court in the full knowledge they now stand alone, cut off from any previous intelligence alliances as well as intelligence archives, mainly as a result of what transpired at this week's session.

"He who accuses must also prove" were the words used by George Bizos, legal representative of the secret services, when he gave his arguments before the judge.

Shaik had put certain documents in the public domain, Bizos declared. "It is his business. He has to sleep on the bed he made for himself."

Shaik and Maharaj had previously been "perfectly willing" to produce documents backing their allegations to newspapers and e-tv, Bizos told Hefer.

The "date of reckoning" had arrived. "Let us see whether there is a case against Ngcuka or not."

Bizos presented most of these sentiments after returning from a decisive meeting of the legal teams gathered at the commission.

The meeting took place during a break in commission proceedings, marked by the same problem which had been hindering the judge's ability to investigate the allegations against Ngcuka for weeks - the refusal of the secret services to assist him with documents or testimony.

The commission tried to overcome the problem by serving a wide spectrum of past and present secret service members with subpoenas ordering them to submit documents or give testimony.

The first of these witnesses, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, was present when Bizos again started proceedings with a series of old and new arguments designed to keep him (Selebi) and other subpoenaed witnesses off the stand.

The deadlock was broken when the legal teams met to consider the contents of a letter faxed to the commission's secretary, John Bacon, earlier this week. The letter, written by the Rev Frank Chikane, director-general of the office of President Thabo Mbeki, in effect indemnifies Ngcuka with regard to any allegations Shaik and Maharaj might wish to ground on information held by the security services.

The letter informed the commission the president had "unfetterred access to all information in the possession of state intelligence and security structures".

"There would be no point in the president appointing a commission to pursue information to which the president already has access," the letter states.

After weeks of unfriendly legal skirmishes, the contents of the letter accounted for the first friendly agreement among the legal teams of the security services, Ngcuka and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna.

Ngcuka and Maduna's teams supported Bizos's argument, calling for the withdrawal of the subpoenas against members of the security services and his call to send in the Shaiks.

The judge complied.

How lonely life will be for the Shaik who has officially been summonsed by Hefer to back his allegations against Ngcuka was illustrated by some of the arguments heard by Hefer this week .

Bizos made no bones about the "very serious effect" the allegations and subsequent developments had on the secret services.

He told Hefer the secret services had been contacted by sources worried about the possibility that the trust between them and their employers could be broken by events at the commission.

The secret services had been compelled to reassure "all and sundry their identities are safe".

Bizos also told the commission Shaik had sought indemnity at a meeting with members of the secret services earlier in the week

What Shaik intends to do tomorrow is unclear.

He told City Press his legal representatives had advised him against being interviewed.

Yunis, who addressed the commission this week, suggested his brother believes himself to be between a rock and a hard place.

Either six months or 10 years in jail (would be the difference between the rock and the hard place), Yunis said.

If Mo Shaik refuses to testify before the commission, he faces six months' imprisonment. If he reveals prohibited information, he faces 10 years.

Informing Hefer that he left the meeting between Shaik and the secret services on Monday "with the impression he was at liberty to testify matters public arena", Yunis asked for clarification of his brother's position.

Bizos responded by repeating what he told the judge earlier in the proceedings.

Shaik had been told to consult his own legal representatives, he said.

Yunis also told Hefer his brother and Maharaj at no stage produced "any documents to City Press and e-tv".

His brother was approached by former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy to confirm whether the ANC had conducted an investigation into the possibility that Ngcuka was an apartheid spy.

There was also no evidence to substantiate allegations made "ad nauseam in the press" that it was Shaik and Maharaj who accused Ngcuka.

Yunis emotionally objected to Bizos's repeated statements that Shaik had supplied documents to newspapers and e-tv. He asked Hefer to protect his brother from Bizos's remarks.

Bizos responded by laconically quipping: "I will persist in holding the belief that I can trust my own eyes."

With acknowledgements to Mariechen Waldner and the City Press.