The much-publicised Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in Durban has stirred much public interest in Zimbabwe, where presiding judge Hilary Squires practiced law, served as a judge and was a cabinet minister

THE trial and conviction of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik has stirred as much public interest on the other side of the Limpopo River as it has done in South Africa.

While in South Africa the case has stirred controversy because of its dire political implications for Deputy President Jacob Zuma, in Zimbabwe it has generated interest for a different reason. The judge was the star attraction north of the Limpopo.

Justice Hilary Gwyn Squires, who presided over the Shaik case in the Durban high court, occupies a prominent position in Zimbabwean history. He is well known as a distinguished lawyer and judge, as well as a hard-line former Rhodesian cabinet minister.

Born in South Africa in 1933, he attended Rhodes Preparatory School in the Matopos, just outside Bulawayo, before attending the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Cape Town.

After school Squires studied at the University of Cape Town where he obtained BA and Ll B degrees.

At the height of apartheid in 1956, following the National Party’s ascent to power in 1948, Squires left South Africa for Rhodesia. Three years later he went into private practice in Bulawayo.

In 1965 he left Bulawayo for Harare, then Salisbury, to continue his work.

He soon became an advocate of the Rhodesian high court and later the South African supreme court. He was also chairman at one time of the Salisbury Bar Council.

Squires remained in private practice until 1970 when he was persuaded by then Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith to join the ruling Rhodesian Front.

His headlong plunge into the poisoned world of Rhodesian politics marked a dramatic change in his career.

In 1971 Squires became MP for Salisbury Central. His popularity had soared in political circles due to his anti-British stance after Smith’s unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Britain in 1965.

Asked in September 1973 what would happen after UDI, Squires said: “Rhodesia’s path should be straight on and up!”

He described an opponent, Dr Morris Hirsch, who supported talks with Britain, as having “naive faith” in politics.

Squires’s political career flourished and In January 1976 he was appointed minister for justice, law and order. He became leader of the house in May 1977.

In 1979 he was appointed defence minister in the Bishop Abel Muzorewa government.

As justice minister, Squires maintained the repressive Rhodesian legal system in a bid to contain rising nationalism and an escalation of the anti-colonial war by “terrorists”.

Squires adopted a no-nonsense approach in defence of the Smith regime.

Paul Moorcroft, who wrote the book, A Short Thousand Years: The End of Rhodesia’s Rebellion, describes Squires as a “staunch Rhodesian Front hard-liner”.

Squires was also described by Frederick Cleary in the Sunday Mail on February 1, 1976 as “a firm believer in the detention system”.

Presiding over the martial law courts, Squires defended martial law as well as the private armies (auxiliaries) belonging to internal nationalist leaders. He vigorously opposed the release of political prisoners.

In October 1977, Squires was widely accused of interfering with the administration of justice in the deportation case of Janice McLaughlin, a press secretary at the Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission.

McLaughlin, an American nun, was accused of spreading false reports about Rhodesia which created “alarm and despondency”.

Squires was also instrumental in the deportation of Mutare Catholic Bishop Donal Lamont, a notable critic of the Smith regime, saying imprisoning the cleric would have turned him into a martyr. He accused Lamont of “intellectual arrogance” and “hypocrisy of selective conscience”.

Squires, who has spoken about the need for “ethical journalism”, also cracked down on journalists, especially those from Britain. In October 1976 he deported the British Daily Mirror journalist, Nick Davies, and cameraman Peter Stone, for alleged sensational reporting.

In 1979, Squires warned Cubans assisting nationalist movements that if they tried to enter Rhodesia they would be “shot off”.

He was subsequently elevated to the high court bench, but this didn’t prevent him lashing out at British-appointed Rhodesian governor Lord Soames’s amnesty for war crimes, saying his decision was an “ill-considered instrument”.

He left the country at independence in 1980 for South Africa, coming out of retirement recently to hear the Shaik case in Durban. The trial made South African legal history as it was the first in which television cameras were allowed into the courtroom to record – and broadcast live – the judgment and sentencing.

Squires heard another high profile case, following the Shobashobane massacre on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast on Christmas Day 1995. Squires convicted 13 IFP supporters in the Durban high court in March 1997 on charges of murdering and attempting to murder ANC supporters.

The full bench of the Natal division of the high court in 1998 overturned on appeal the conviction and sentences Hilary handed down to five of the accused.

With ackowledgement to The Herald Online.