Deputy President Jacob Zuma now has no choice but to testify before the Hefer Commission.

This was the view expressed yesterday by the Democratic Alliance.

In a statement, DA MP Sheila Camerer said the commission would have no credibility if Zuma did not appear. She said Zuma's involvement in the seemingly unauthorised retention of a database of spy information needed to be clarified.

"Deputy President Zuma is the only person able to corroborate the testimony presented to the Hefer Commission. He has repeatedly bemoaned the fact that he was never granted the opportunity to state his side of the story; what better platform is he waiting for?

"He is guaranteed the undivided attention of a concerned nation," Camerer said.

Mo Shaik, appearing before the Hefer Commission last week, said he had a database of 888 ANC members suspected of being spies for the apartheid regime. He said Justice Minister Penuell Maduna had approached him over the list, but Zuma had told him not to divulge anything or hand over documents to Maduna or anyone else.

The ANC previously said that all information regarding suspected spies had been handed over to the intelligence agencies. There was, therefore, no need for Zuma to appear before the commission.

Zuma's office would not comment, saying it was an ANC matter.

But Camerer said that if Zuma refused an invitation to appear before the Hefer inquiry, he should be subpoenaed.

Another DA MP, Philip Schalkwyk, said he would request the joint standing committee on intelligence to investigate claims by Shaik that he possessed a database of suspected spies.

He said the information appeared to be National Intelligence Agency (NIA) property. It was therefore privileged and not to be used by Shaik as an "insurance policy" to use and manipulate for his own interests.

"If the information contained in this database came from NIA sources, he needs to obtain clearance from the director-general of intelligence before publicising any such information. The information, from all accounts, appears to be NIA property and Mr Shaik would be breaking the law if he didn't hand the database back to the NIA," Schalkwyk said.

Zuma has stressed that politicians and social leaders should be exemplary in "showing their morality", Cindy Zeilhofer reports.

He added that South Africans everywhere were "sick and fed up" with antisocial behaviour destroying the country.

Zuma was addressing the crowd at the badly attended opening of the Moral Regeneration Movement, launched at the Pilditch stadium in Pretoria at the weekend.

He also spoke of making the country more civilised.

With acknowledgements to the Political Bureau and The Star.