Bloemfontein - Former ANC military intelligence operative Mo Shaik reconstructed a decade-old spy report on Bulelani Ngcuka within months of his brother Schabir Shaik being investigated by the Scorpions.

This emerged at the Hefer Commission yesterday.

The commission was set up to investigate claims made by Shaik and former transport minister Mac Maharaj that the national director of public prosecutions was an apartheid spy and that he abused his office as a consequence of this.

The report, which concluded that Ngcuka was in "all probability" an agent for the apartheid regime, was written by Mo Shaik's intelligence unit in 1989. It was never mentioned again and also not discussed when Ngcuka was appointed as the country's chief prosecutor.

The report was resuscitated and reconstructed by Mo Shaik when his brother and the Nkobi group of companies came under investigation for corruption relating to the arms deal.

Maharaj, who underwent a gruelling seven hours of cross-examination on the ninth day of public hearings by the commission, was also snagged by the arms deal investigation.

He protested his innocence and told the commission that Ngcuka was abusing his power in several ways.

The Shaik report was first made public through an article in City Press published in September.

Maharaj said he first discussed the reconstructed report with Mo Shaik after he decided to "go public" with claims that Ngcuka had abused his powers.

Maharaj also said yesterday that he had shown the report to president Thabo Mbeki when he went to see him on August 23.

Counsel for Ngcuka, Marumo Moerane SC, told the commission that he had been instructed that Maharaj had not shown the president any proof.

He said, however, that he was not going to argue with Maharaj about this, because in any case the "report had a flawed conclusion based on incorrect facts".

"That is your view," Maharaj replied.

Earlier in the day, Maharaj spent about 10 minutes evading questions of who had given the reconstructed report to former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy. She apparently passed on this report to City Press.

Evidence leader Kessie Naidu SC, said: "Did you ask Mo Shaik if he gave her the document?"

Maharaj: "No." Naidu: "Why not?" Maharaj: "It was no longer an issue." Judge Joos Hefer: "But it was a highly secret ANC document." Steven Joseph SC (for Maharaj): "It was a reconstructed report created in December 2002." Naidu: "Weren't you curious?" Maharaj: "It is not the type of relationship we have." Naidu: "But it contained serious allegations." Maharaj: "I asked him why did you reconstruct it? ... He said he showed it to major people in the ANC." Naidu: "You were not concerned about publishing the report?" Maharaj: "I knew it was going to be published." Naidu: "Who gave it to Munusamy?"

A long discussion then ensued during which Maharaj refused to answer the question. Eventually Maharaj asked: "Do you want me to tell the commission what Mo Shaik's evidence will be?" Naidu: "Never mind what Mo Shaik will say. You tell us what you know, Mr Maharaj." Maharaj: "He (Mo Shaik) has indicated that he will tell the commission that he gave it to her (Munusamy)."

Maharaj argued that the commission could not rely on the "confession" of former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer, Vanessa Brereton, that she was apartheid agent RS452. Naidu referred to a report that Brereton had long been suspected by the ANC for being a spy. He asked why the ANC did not act on this information. Maharaj: "I cannot believe that the ANC would have taken a report referring to her clothes, lack of legal ability, etc seriously." Naidu: "You are avoiding my question. Just think about it. There were reasons for suspecting that she was a spy. "Could that have been an error by Shaik?"

During his cross-examination, Moerane said Maharaj had decided to make the spy-claims public because Ngcuka refused to help him out of an embarrassing situation.

This related to public claims, flowing from the arms deal investigation, that Maharaj had received money from Schabir Shaik and precipitated a Firstrand investigation. At the time Maharaj was on the board of Firstrand. He claimed that Ngcuka's refusal to clear his name allowed for the allegations to hang over him and his family.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis, Jeremy Gordin and the Cape Times.