As Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik finally told the nation why they called Bulelani Ngcuka a spy, a white-haired lawyer from Durban took centre stage. S'Thembiso Msomi profiles evidence leader Kessie Naidu

EVIDENCE LEADER: Kessie Naidu grills Mo Shaik this week Picture: SIMON MATHEBULA

There must have been a time during his gruelling cross-examination by Kessie Naidu that former transport minister Mac Maharaj wondered whether his one-time landlord perhaps bore a grudge against him.

In fact, in one of the few light moments during this week's cross-examination, Maharaj did politely point out to retired judge Joos Hefer that he had once rented a house in Sydenham, Johannesburg, from Naidu when he was in hiding from the police because of his involvement in an underground ANC operation.

Such has been evidence leader Naidu's ruthless approach to his questioning of both Maharaj and foreign affairs ministry adviser Mo Shaik that at one stage Shaik threatened to walk out of the Hefer Commission. At another stage, Shaik accused Naidu of grandstanding.

During a break on Thursday, Shaik's older brother, lawyer Yunis, had to bring the two together for a brief reconciliation following a heated debate.

Naidu himself had his own frustrations when the two witnesses on a number of occasions seemed to be avoiding answering certain questions. But even during those times, he kept his sense of humour.

When Naidu was appointed evidence leader of the commission set up to investigate whether National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy, there were objections by some to his perceived strong ties to Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

Naidu had acted as Zuma's advocate when Ngcuka' s office investigated allegations that the Deputy President had solicited a bribe from a French company, Thales, in relation to the arms deal.

But any suspicions that Naidu might be biased against Ngcuka were quickly put to rest once the commission began its work.

Naidu blamed the perceptions of possible conflict of interest on the "ignorance of people about the role" of advocates.

"They need to understand that we get instructed; we do not have clients," he said.

In fact, Naidu has had dealings with all the key players in the commission. Besides being Maharaj's landlord in the late 1980s, he was also a member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers - one of the organisations that Ngcuka is alleged to have infiltrated as an apartheid spy.

He has acted as the legal representative of Justice Minister Penuell Maduna, whose ministry exercises political control over the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions.

The Durban-based advocate was even once instructed by then Port Elizabeth-based lawyer Vanessa Brereton to represent some of her clients. Brereton recently admitted that she was police agent RS452 who spied on anti-apartheid activists in the Eastern Cape.

Maharaj and Shaik initially claimed that Ngcuka was RS452.

The late Griffiths Mxenge, in whose legal firm Ngcuka once worked and who is now said by Shaik to have questioned Ngcuka's commitment to the ANC, was also a close associate of Naidu.

Mxenge was killed by a group of "askaris" on the orders of death squad commander Dirk Coetzee. Shaik claimed this week that Coetzee told the ANC, when he defected to the party in the late 1980s, that a security agent worked in Mxenge's office.

For Naidu the separation of personal and professional relations are important.

"It sometimes happens that the people you cross-examine are people you know from your past. Some of them expect you to be lenient because of the previous relationship, but advocacy demands that we act in a manner that is sometimes hurtful to the people we might have related to in the past. That is the nature of the profession," Naidu said.

The Hefer Commission is not the first inquiry Naidu has been involved in. In the early 1990s he headed a commission into the state of KwaZulu-Natal hospitals. In 2001 he was appointed evidence leader of a commission investigating suspected manipulation of the rand.

His colleagues in the legal profession say it is because of his cross-examination skills that Naidu is in such demand.

On Friday Shaik protested that he did not see any difference between Naidu's role and that of Ngcuka's lawyer, Marumo Moerane .

Naidu, who has been an advocate for 26 years, sees the work of the commission as extremely important to the survival of the country's justice system.

"The President did well to appoint the commission. The office of the NDPP is pivotal to the administration of justice and the country's fight against crime. It is the first time in our history that we have a national director of public prosecutions.

"If these allegations are left unresolved, the criminals will be smiling and those good men and women employed in the office will have their morale seriously affected," he said.

With acknowledgements to S'thembiso Msomi and the Sunday Times.