Judge Joos Hefer has, for the moment, set aside the subpoenas served over the past few weeks on the various security agencies.

The various agencies, including the police, the National Intelligence Agency, the South African Secret Services and the South African National Defence Force, do not therefore have to present the documents called for by the Hefer Commission.

These documents and files were supposed to offer information on whether the National Driector of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, was a spy or informer for the apartheid regime.

The judge indicated however that, if necessary, he might launch the subpoenas again.

He has decided to wait until Monday, when Mac Maharaj, the former transport minister, and Mo Shaik, a former ANC security operative - the two main accusers of Ngcuka - are scheduled to give evidence to the commission.

The judge also adjourned the commission until Monday.

Hefer's decision followed a morning of argument about whether he ought to have enforced the subpoenas. It was a morning of confusion, and at one point Hefer indicated he would withdraw the subpoenas. But he changed his mind after certain information had been drawn to his attention.

The commission was also the scene of an interesting intervention on the part of senior counsel Norman Arendse, for Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna, acting in concert with the attorneys of Ngcuka.

Both these parties tried to find a way in which the commission could bypass a confrontation with the security agencies.

Senior counsel George Bizos, representing the security agencies, told the commission his clients were not obliged to produce any of the documents requested because they had a "just excuse" for not doing so - it was against numerous statutes and laws. In addition, Bizos said, the subpoenas asked for an impossibly wide and vague amount of information from his clients.

It was at this point, having heard the "wide amount of information" requested in the subpoena served on National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, that Hefer said he agreed that he should withdraw the subpoenas.

But Hefer then had further discussions with all the parties in chambers and also asked the evidence leader, senior counsel Kessie Naidu, to read out the details of some of the other subpoenas. Having heard these, the judge indicated that he wanted to hear more argument on the issue.

Arendse attacked the security agencies for their "obstructive and unhelpful attitude" and said the commission was coming perilously close to becoming "another Harms Commission" - the discredited commission that investigated death squads in 1989/90 and was accused of having been "toothless".

Later, however, Arendse quoted from a letter sent to the commission by Frank Chikane, the director-general in the President's Office.

In it Chikane pointed out that the president had "unfettered access to all security structures" and that there was little point in the president having appointed a commission to pursue information residing in those structures.

This being the case, Arendse argued, there seemed little point in not withdrawing the subpoenas against the security agencies.

Hefer said he wanted to stick to his job of leaving no stone unturned in finding out whether Ngcuka had been a spy, and this might necessitate obtaining information from the agencies.

But, the judge said, he would set aside the subpoenas for the moment.

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin and The Star.