After three days of cross-examination, Mac Maharaj today made a shocking admission to the Hefer Commission: "I do not know if Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy."
Ngcuka's advocate, Marumo Moerane SC, who had taken half the morning session to get this out of the former transport minister, then answered with a relieved smile: "Thank you, thank you. Now the whole of South Africa knows that Mr Mac Maharaj does not know whether or not Mr Ngcuka was a spy."
The chairperson of the commission, retired Judge Joos Hefer, then asked Maharaj why he had gone to see the president to tell him about the Ngcuka allegations, as he had earlier claimed to have done.
Maharaj said he believed a "big danger had arisen in the country" and he was severely concerned.
"Bulelani Ngcuka did more than just abuse his office, he committed a number of crimes and destroyed my name."
Earlier on Wednesday morning, Maharaj told the commission - which has been appointed to investigate allegations that Ngcuka, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, was once a spy for the apartheid government and has abused his current office - that he doubted at least three aspects of a reconstructed intelligence report identifying Ngcuka as an apartheid spy.
Maharaj, for the first time, disagreed with former African National Congress intelligence operative Mo Shaik.
The commission heard on Tuesday that Shaik had reconstructed a 14-year-old report in which he concluded that Ngcuka was most probably a spy.
"I did not have sufficient information to put the 1989 report before a leading member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers," Maharaj said.
"But 14 years later you put it in the public arena," Moerane replied.
Maharaj said he could not say if the 1989 report was accurate but he accepted its conclusion.
When Moerane responded that some aspects of the reconstructed report were clearly false, Maharaj admitted that he did not agree with three aspects of it.
These were a reference to Ngcuka's alleged role in the National Intelligence Service (NIS), a reference to Ngcuka visiting Dakar, and a reference to restrictions placed on
Ngcuka's passport.
"I cannot remember that Ngcuka was identified as an agent in the NIS," Maharaj said.
When asked why he had confirmed the spy investigation to former Sunday Times journalist Ranjeni Munusamy, Maharaj said: "I only confirmed that there was an investigation. I never confirmed the details".
On Tuesday, during Maharaj's testimony, it emerged that Mo Shaik had resuscitated and reworked the decade-old report on Ngcuka within months of his brother Schabir being investigated by the Scorpions for corruption relating to the multi-billion rand arms deal.
Maharaj told the commission that it was this report, originally compiled by Mo Shaik's ANC intelligence unit in 1989 and which said Ngcuka was "in all probability" an apartheid-government informer, that he discussed with President Thabo Mbeki on August 23.
It is not known what conclusion the meeting between Maharaj and Mbeki reached, but less than three weeks later, parts of the report, which was given to Munusamy, were published in the City Press.
Soon after that, Mbeki appointed the Hefer Commission.
Moerane, however, said he had been told that Maharaj had not shown the president any proof. He said the "report had a flawed conclusion based on incorrect facts".
"That's your view," Maharaj said.
Earlier, Maharaj spent about 10 minutes evading questions about who gave the report to Munusamy, who passed it on to City Press.
The commission's evidence leader Kessie Naidu SC asked: "Did you ask Mo Shaik if he gave her the document?"
Maharaj: "No."
Naidu: "Why not?"
Maharaj: "It was no longer an issue."
To which Hefer replied: "But it was a highly secret ANC document."
Steven Joseph SC, advocate for Maharaj, said: "It was a reconstructed report created in December 2002."
Naidu: "Weren't you curious?"
Maharaj: "It's 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."
A long discussion ensued, during which Maharaj refused to divulge who had given the report to Munusamy. Eventually, Maharaj said: "(Mo Shaik) has indicated that he will tell the commission that he gave it to her."
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 of being a spy. He asked why the ANC had not acted.
Maharaj said: "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?"
Maharaj, who was also snagged by the arms deal investigation, said he had decided to "go public" about Ngcuka when he learned that Ngcuka was leaking information to the media about himself.
Moerane said Maharaj had gone public because Ngcuka refused to issue a public statement clearing his name.
Maharaj looked extremely tired at the close of Tuesday's session.
The hearing continues.