Publication: Sapa Issued: Pietermaritzburg Date: 2006-07-31 Reporter: Sapa Reporter:

Zuma Judge No Stranger to High-profile Cases

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-COURT-ZUMA-2ND-LD-JUDGE

Issued

Pietermaritzburg
Date 2006-07-31

Reporter

Sapa

 

Judge Herbert Qed'usizi Msimang, presiding over Jacob Zuma's corruption hearing, is no stranger to high-profile court cases.

Former colleagues said there was no doubt that he had the ability and credentials required to handle the pressure and intricacies of the case against South Africa's former deputy president.

In 1996, Msimang was an assessor in the court case that saw former defence minister Magnus Malan and 12 co-accused walk free after they had been accused of the KwaMakhutha massacre.

In a more recent matter, Msimang ordered that the KwaZulu-Natal government's head of housing, Mdu Khoza, be sent to prison for 10 years.

Msimang was born in Edendale in 1951.

Members of his family are noted for their alignment with the African National Congress. However, he himself has not been considered an activist.

After matriculating in Nqutu, near Dundee, in 1969, Msimang enrolled at the University of Zululand where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (B-Juris) degree in 1973.

In 1975, he completed a Master of Laws at the Tulana University of Louisiana in New Orleans in the United States.

His first job was a teaching post at the KwaDlangezwa campus of the University of Zululand.

After working for two years as an advocate of the High Court of Lesotho, he moved to Pretoria in 1979 to serve his articles.

He joined the practice of Pietermaritzburg attorney Peter Rutsch in 1985, where he worked for 10 years.

The Sunday Times quoted Rutsch as saying: "This is a very, very intelligent guy with a massive amount of ability. He is a person who would succeed at anything he turns his attention to."

Msimang was in July 1998 appointed as an acting judge in the Natal Provincial Division of the High Court, at times sitting on the bench in 2000 and 2001.

In 2002, Msimang became a full-time judge, and has presided over various criminal and civil cases.

Rutsch said: "He is... a man of very strong principles, and a mercurial temper who does not take crap from anybody. I think he will handle the case very well."

Another former partner told the Sunday Times that Msimang was "an incredibly intelligent man, a very good attorney and a great jurist".

The Mail and Guardian has labelled him "the hard man on the bench".

With acknowledgement to Sapa.