Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2006-11-12 Reporter: Liz Clarke Reporter:

Taking Stock and a Cup of Tea with Shaik's Judge

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent
Date

2006-11-12

Reporter

Liz Clarke

Web Link

www.sundayindependent.co.za

 

Hilary Squires is bored by TV, discourages preening media circuses in court, actively avoids cellphones and has no intention of writing any memoirs

It was almost two years ago when one of the most important trials in post-apartheid South Africa was about to get under way in the Durban high court.

The trial would focus on what the state alleged was a "generally corrupt relationship" between the former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, and his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

At the time I contacted trial judge Hilary Squires, brought out of retirement for the task, to ask if he would consider an interview.

Predictably his answer was "no, maybe afterwards". Could we have an updated picture to go with an article on him, his legal background and the trial itself? "No".

Now that the lengthy journey into the backwaters of Shaik's financial dealings was over he was prepared to chat "over tea".

Entering the ordinary gates of the judge's ordinary Durban home, I could not help thinking of another more elaborate residence on the top of a distant hill in Nkandla owned by Jacob Zuma - a structure that emerged as a central topic in the trial.

But Squires is not about to discuss any finer details of the case save to say that one newspaper columnist suggested that he was to be paid R3,5 million to take the trial *1.

"I wish," he says. "Whoever gleaned that information was gravely erroneous."

Though there are many questions that I wanted to ask the 74-year-old Squires, the spillover of the judgment into other fields of public interest might restrict what he would or would not say.

I suggested he rather tell me what was still out of bounds.

"You ask and I'll tell," he said, arms crossed, his eyes fixed on mine with the same eagle-lined forehead that I remembered on television.

The beginning seemed a good place - the day he was asked by the judge-president of KwaZulu-Natal, Vuka Tshabalala, to preside over the trial of Shaik, who had steadfastly denied any wrongdoing or any untoward association with Zuma before being charged.

"I was surprised, but judges are occasionally recalled, even if no longer actively serving.

"In fact until the age of 75 one is obliged to serve at least three months of every calendar year, if you're required. So it was a matter of saying yes and going back to work."

The "work" as he calls it began on a rainy day in October 2004 in the Durban high court amid huge public interest.

E.tv was swiftly on his doorstep asking for permission to televise the proceedings, a request he refused.

"I did not think it would have been in the interests of a fair trial. I didn't want a media circus where witnesses either said far too much, became distracted or talked nonsense. Both prosecution and defence were also vehemently opposed to the idea."

Not that he would have seen any of the replays on TV. He doesn't have a television set because "regular viewing is so uninteresting". He only hires one for things like the World Cup Cricket or the Olympic Games.

However he "left the door open" for them to apply when there were no longer witnesses or counsel to be distracted, which left only the judgment.

"I asked that the cameras be kept still throughout, which they were."

Squires is quite happy to admit that at the start of the trial he had "very little idea" of what it was all about.

"I knew that Bulelani Ngcuka, the chief of prosecutions at the time, said that he thought there may be a prima facie case against Zuma. But I knew nothing of that or of Shaik himself or his financial background or the arms deal for that matter. For me it was like a large unpainted canvas."

He said that it was only after the December recess in 2004 that many of the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.

In the beginning, for example, he said he could not understand why so much store was put in witnesses like Themba Sono, who was for a while a director of Nkobi Holdings, a company controlled by Shaik.

It was only later in the light of Sono's evidence of how Shaik boasted of his political connections to Zuma and how these connections would one day "open doors" for government contracts *2, that his testimony became understandably relevant.

The encrypted fax was possibly the most absorbing piece of evidence *3 because it suddenly lifted the often tedious court hearings into the realms of a John le Carre spy novel.

"The interesting part to note is that while there is an element of hearsay in it and we can only guess what the code was, in the court's view it was admissible evidence in that the document was part of the conspiracy and one of the conspirators was on trial."

Like most judges he is an intensely private person - who certainly has "no intention" of writing any memoirs, preferring carpentry and model trains.

He doesn't smile much, but one senses that there is humour beneath the stern facade.

In his 84-page judgment he wrote: "Mr Downer for the State has likened his case to Virgil's classic epic The Aeniad, as being 'a story of arms and a man'.

"Apart from the essential narrative of the arms acquisition package and Shaik's indirect involvement in it, the only resemblance his case bore to the 12 books of this classical illustration was the epic proportions of the evidence he eventually led."

In another part of this document he quoted an eastern sage who said: "As today is the effect of yesterday, so also is it the cause of tomorrow *4".

If you want to ask him what he meant by that, don't bother.

He doesn't have a cellphone, doesn't like them, and will probably never have one.

With acknowledgements to Liz Clarke and Sunday Independent.


*1       Judges remain judges for life (except if they resign Judge Willem Heath). They get paid a judge's salary for life and when they die their spouse get a portion (67%) of the salary until they die.

If theu have served for less than 10 years at retirement at 70, then until a judge is 75 they may be called upon to act for up to 3 months a year. They surely don't get paid extra during that time.


*2      These connections would also close doors to government contracts for his competitors.


*3      The encrypted fax is a red hot, smoking AK-47 with fresh finger prints and traces of black powder matching those to be found on its owners' hands, i.e. those of Alain Thetard, Yann de Jomaron, Jean-Paul Perrier and Thomson-CSF.


*4      Causality.