The "lies" around National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka's being apartheid-era spy RS 452 are being exposed - but the country's top prosecutor is not yet out of the woods.

The Hefer Commission of Inquiry set up by President Thabo Mbeki to establish whether Ngcuka spied for the apartheid regime, among other claims, is satisfied that human rights lawyer and self-confessed spy Vanessa Brereton was agent RS 452, but it is to investigate the possibility that Ngcuka was a spy with a different codename.

The commission resumes public hearings today after taking a five-day break to carry out investigations and persuade the intelligence services to make available documents deemed crucial to prove or disprove the allegations.

"I am RS 452," Brereton - the former leading Eastern Cape human rights lawyer - told Independent Newspapers this week, breaking years of silence.

Her confession, which was published yesterday, has shocked her former associates, many of whom relied on her as their lawyer in their struggles with the notorious security police in the turbulent 1980s.

Ngcuka's spokesman, Sipho Ngwema, was clearly pleased with the confession, which partly exonerated Ngcuka.

"It does add a very important piece in the puzzle. We knew the truth was on our side," Ngwema said.

"I think step by step, all the lies are being exposed ... and eventually will show most of these allegations were not true."

Hefer Commission secretary John Bacon called Brereton's confession a positive development and said it would make the commission's work easier.

It meant the first part of Justice Joos Hefer's mandate - to establish whether Ngcuka was apartheid security police agent RS 452 - had been fulfilled, pending a submission by Brereton.

"The commission still has to investigate whether Ngcuka was a spy under any other codename," Bacon said.

Under the broader terms of reference set by Mbeki, the commission is to investigate whether Ngcuka and his line manager, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, misused their offices because of "past obligations to apartheid".

Brereton's former handler, Bureau of State Security (Boss) agent R 1653, Karl Edwards, confirmed yesterday that the former human rights lawyer had been RS 452.

"I am terribly shocked," Edwards said. "I did not expect her to confess and all along I was protecting her identity."

Suspicions about Brereton were first raised after Ngcuka's office, in dismissing allegations carried by City Press that the national director of public prosecutions had been an apartheid spy, said agent RS 452 was a white woman from the Port Elizabeth area.

Information leaked to the media placed the unnamed woman at a meeting in 1989 with nine other anti-apartheid activists in the city.

Some of the woman's former associates approached the Hefer commission with evidence suggesting RS 452 was Brereton.

Bacon said human rights lawyer Glenn Goosen, a former associate of Brereton and one of the people at the 1989 meeting, would appear before the commission tomorrow.

The commission would study Brereton's affidavit before deciding whether it would call her to Bloemfontein or travel to London, where she was living, Bacon said.

Brereton's confession has not swayed Ngcuka's accusers, foreign affairs special adviser and former ANC intelligence agent Mo Shaik and former transport minister Mac Maharaj.

They said yesterday they would give evidence to the commission.

With acknowledgements to Christelle Terreblanche, Lee Rondganger, Sapa and the Cape Times.