A Durban attorney denied yesterday earlier evidence before the Hefer Commission that partly refuted spy allegations against national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.

Kwenzakwakhe Elijah Mlaba nevertheless conceded shortly afterwards that he could be wrong.

Mlaba initially denied yesterday that he received Ngcuka's passport for safekeeping during the eighties. At the time, Ngcuka was being detained by the apartheid security police.

This contradicted earlier testimony of Martha Duma Tutu, a former travel agency owner who arranged travel documents for activists going into exile.

Tutu told the commission that Ngcuka applied for his passport before he was arrested by the security police. She picked it up for him while he was in prison.

When the security police started harassing her, she handed the passport to Mlaba, she said.

Mlaba admitted on Friday that he could have forgotten that Tutu had handed him an envelope. It could have escaped his attention, he said.

During his cross-examination he also admitted that he had contacted the commission after Ngcuka's main accuser, Mo Shaik, had phoned him. – Sapa.