Pretoria High Court Judge Willem van der Merwe, the fourth most senior judge in the Transvaal Provincial Division, has been tasked with handling the rape case of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, a move that has been welcomed by the defence team.

The announcement yesterday by Transvaal Judge-President Bernard Ngoepe confirms the stance he took last month, when he recused himself from the trial, that the most senior available judge would handle the high-profile case.

“There are very clear criteria, namely the most available senior judge,” Ngoepe said at the time. “We don’t use colour, gender or the size of people’s feet or noses. We use seniority.”

Zuma’s attorney, Michael Hulley, said yesterday that the defence team respected the judiciary and had confidence in Van der Merwe’s integrity.

Hulley said the defence team’s preparations were in order and it was ready to proceed with the case when it resumes on Monday.

Zuma was charged last year with raping a 31-year-old family friend at his Johannesburg home in November. Zuma has denied the charge.

When Ngoepe recused himself at the start of the trial last month, he said the next senior judge, Deputy Judge-President Phineas Mojapelo, had excluded himself for personal reasons.

He also said the third in line in terms of seniority, Transvaal Deputy Judge-President Jeremiah Shongwe, would preside over the trial, but this was before revelations that Zuma had a child with Shongwe’s sister.

Wits law professor David Unterhalter welcomed Ngoepe’s decision. “It seems to me that the appointment is a very sensible appointment. He is precisely the kind of judge needed for such a case because of his experience in the bench,” Unterhalter said.

Van der Merwe presided over one of SA’s most prominent trials in the 1990s, involving former police colonel and apartheid assassin Eugene de Kock.

He sentenced De Kock to two life terms after a trial that lasted more than 18 months.

The judge was also in the news in 2000 when he sentenced four white Gauteng policemen, who had been captured on camera setting dogs on three black Mozambican citizens.

In 2003 Van der Merwe was again in the news when he gave an eight-year sentence to a man who shot dead a police officer.

He defended the light sentence by saying the murderer, Monhla Malema, had throughout the trial co-operated with police and had shown deep remorse.

With acknowledgement to the Business Day and Ernest Mabuza.