Mastermind: Paul Ngobeni

The other players

Paul Ngobeni, deputy registrar of legal services at the University of Cape Town, is rapidly emerging as the brain behind much of the legal and political strategy aimed at killing the corruption, racketeering and fraud case against ANC president Jacob Zuma.

Ngobeni is responsible for the shift which saw the conspiracy argument taken from the political sidelines into the legal mainstream after years of Zuma’s backers crying foul ­ without specifying who was behind the alleged plot against the ANC president.

Disbarred from practising law in Connecticut in the US ­ he is appealing the decision ­ Ngobeni is part of a team with Willem Heath, Venda University vice-chancellor Gessler Nkondo and commentator Professor Sipho Seepe that works with the ANC national working committee task team appointed to support Zuma.

An articulate, genuinely funny man with a hard-to-place transatlantic accent, Ngobeni is also credited with the slash-and-burn legal strategy now adopted by Zuma, which has resulted in damaging information about other ANC luminaries being presented to acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe.

He is seen as the mastermind behind the decision that the ANC, the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust and other groupings should try to join Zuma’s case as friends of the court, a move aimed at tying up the National Prosecuting Authority on as many fronts as possible while exerting massive political pressure on it.

An ANC-linked lawyer who has worked with Ngobeni describes him as “a man of steel camouflaged with humour” who is “not afraid to burn down institutions” to achieve his aim.

Ngobeni is a fierce critic of the role of the NPA and the Chapter Nine institutions ­ in particular the Human Rights Commission ­ in the Zuma saga. He has also turned his attention to all levels of the judiciary ­ including the Judicial Service Commission, the Constitutional Court judges and the Supreme Court of Appeal ­ arguing this week that all had failed in their constitutional duties to ensure Zuma’s right to a fair trial.

With acknowledgements to Paddy Harper and The Times.