On the one side is Bulelani Ngcuka and his Scorpions investigative unit, whose powers Ngcuka is alleged to have abused in an attempt to settle old scores with certain prominent ANC members. On the other side is struggle icon and former transport minister Mac Maharaj and the former head of the ANC's internal counter-intelligence unit, Mo Shaik. This week the two accusers, Maharaj and Shaik, who have accused Ngcuka of being an apartheid-era spy, were humiliated in public at a commission to investigate the claims.