|
'Silver Fox' in Spotlight Again |
| Publication | Sunday Argus |
| Date |
2005-06-26 |
|
Reporter |
Jeremy Gordin |
|
Web link |
Kessie Naidu, the advocate leading Jacob Zuma's defence team, is the
quintessential man of the law
There are at least four things that can safely be said about Kessie Naidu,
the senior counsel chosen to lead Jacob Zuma's defence team when the former
deputy president finally comes to court.
He is the quintessential man of the law. He is as curious and mischievous as the
proverbial street urchin while simultaneously being as smart and wily as his
soubriquet "the Silver Fox" suggests. And he loves the life of Durban,
the city in which he practises and lives.
"Oh bother," Naidu said this week, with a twinkle in his eye, "I
was thinking of taking a break and writing a book. After all, I'm the only law
person who's been involved in the Hefer commission, the recent Shaik trial, and
I have acted in the past for Jacob Zuma.
"But now," he added, while emphasising that he doesn't yet have the
Zuma brief in his hands, "it seems I am about to be appointed to head the
Zuma defence team. It's a tough choice, but I suppose the book will have to
wait."
Naidu was, of course, joking. There is scant chance that he would turn down the
chance to represent the former deputy president.
Naidu turns 56 on Tuesday and sports a mane of silver hair, but he's youthful
and energetic. More to the point, he is not averse to the limelight.
He has clearly enjoyed being known as "the Silver Fox", the nickname
given to him when he became widely known as the evidence leader at the 2003
Hefer commission into allegations that Bulelani Ngcuka, then national director
of public prosecutions, had been a spy for the apartheid government.
The proceedings were broadcast on national television and some newspapers wrote
that certain people came to prefer this broadcast and Naidu to their favourite
soaps and soapie heart throbs.
Naidu was also evidence leader at the 2002 Myburgh commission, which
investigated the rapid depreciation of the rand. He led the prosecution of the
three people charged for murder after a tear-gas canister was tossed into a
Chatsworth night club and 13 children died. He was also the senior counsel
briefed to compile Zuma's answers to 35 questions posed by the Scorpions in July
2003.
Naidu is also known for his grilling of Gideon Nieuwoudt, a former security
policeman, during Nieuwoudt's re-application for amnesty for the Motherwell
bombings.
During his cross-examination by Naidu, Nieuwoudt had to resort to psychiatric
treatment. But one must be cautious about thinking that Naidu is often to be
found in the spotlight simply because he gets his kicks from publicity.
What seems to drive him into being at the centre of the action seems more to be
an insatiable curiosity and a boyish, mischievous joy at being in the thick of
things - at being where it's all happening and playing a part in making it
happen.
In the early seventies Naidu obtained his BA Llb degree at the University of
Durban Westville, then received an Anglo American scholarship to read for a
masters in law at London University. He was admitted as an advocate of the Natal
provincial division of the Supreme Court (as it was known) in May 1977.
From then he practised as junior counsel in Durban until September 1994, when he
was appointed as a senior counsel by former President Nelson Mandela.
During the apartheid days Naidu represented and advised a plethora of people
detained in terms of security legislation, represented anti-government
organisations, and also appeared in court to try to winkle certain people out of
detention.
Naidu was thus counsel for many activists who are now well-known politicians or
former politicians. They included Penuel Maduna, former minister of justice, and
Makhenkhesi Stofile, minister of sport.
He was also an executive member of the national association of democratic
lawyers (Nadel), which played an important role in legal circles in the pre-1994
days.
Yet Naidu never talks of the struggle, tells any war stories, or drops the names
of important people. He also never indulges in any populist or Africanist
rhetoric.
So it takes many encounters with him before one becomes aware that hidden under
Naidu's urbane and charming exterior is a cache of outrage at the ill-treatment,
injustice and humiliation that used to be meted out to people of colour.
Naidu is far too wily, careful and tough to wear his heart on his sleeve. He is
also too much of a professional law man to do so.
If one asks some people who they are, they might answer: "I am an ANC
member first, a father second, and a soccer player third." Or: "I am a
human being first, a wife second, and a journalist third."
With Naidu, one suspects that an honest reply would be: "I am a man of the
law first, and everything else afterwards."
For Naidu is completely devoted to, and respectful of, the legal fraternity and
its work. It's clearly a matter of immense pride to him that he belongs to what
is effectively a brotherhood or personhood - that transcends border,
nationality, creed and colour.
Like many experienced advocates, Naidu is also aware - as the late senior
counsel Isie Maisels used to say - that a bad settlement is inevitably better
than a good case, and it was Naidu who engineered an
agreement between Ngcuka and French arms company Thomson-CSF *1.
Thomson-CSF was originally charged with corruption, along with Shaik, because of
the alleged involvement of one of its directors, Alain Thetard, in a bribe
agreement ostensibly involving himself, Shaik and Zuma.
In terms of the agreement worked out by Naidu, Thomson-CSF was dropped from the
charge sheet. As it turned out - given what Judge Hilary Squires's judgement
said - Thomson-CSF must be thanking its lucky stars
that Naidu did what he did.
Naidu, who is a devout Hindu (he is honourary legal adviser to the Rama Krishna
centre of South Africa), loves the Durban lifestyle and spends as much time as
he can swimming and pursuing water sports.
"I absolutely enjoy and savour the ecstasy of riding the Durban rollers
with my four sons and daughter - no telephone calls, just the cool, fresh
blue," said Naidu.
I asked the man who was appointed an acting judge in the Eastern Cape division
of the high court in February and March 1995 and of the Natal provincial
division in 1997, 2000 and 2003, who was going to be
footing Zuma's legal bills.
"Did I tell you about that remarkable swimming pool I recently
discovered?" he replied - deftly avoiding the political roller that is
going to be flooding his life for the next months.
With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin and the Sunday Argus.
*1 This is a travesty of justice.
There was no plea bargain.
From either Thomson-CSF or Thetard, The People neither got a plea nor any useful
contribution to the State's evidence in Schabir Shaik's trial.
Indeed, Thetard's conduct as regards his admission in a sworn affidavit that he
was the author of the Encrypted Fax and his subsequent denial in a another sworn
affidavit that the contents of the Encrypted Fax were what they were at face
value, represents one of the more cynical and disingenious acts of
misjurisprudence in modern times.
The State should immediately re-instate charges of corruption against :
The State should also immediately formulate charges of corruption against some
or all of :
Additionally, some kind of award for superior dim-wittedness should be derived for the then National Director of Public Prosecutions.