It proved a day short on time in court and big on political posturing and speeches. The former president of South Africa Jacob Zuma’s appearance lasted a mere 10 minutes, on April 6, and the trial postponed until June 8 – yet he managed to make political capital out of his day in court in Durban.
On a bright sunny day in the coastal city of Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province of South Africa, the former head of state stood trial in his own court. Almost 10 years ago, 10 days after this day, 18 charges on 783 counts of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering were dropped against Jacob Zuma by former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Mokotedi Mpshe.
This decision was said to have been based on the recordings of the so-called ‘spy tapes’, which were presented to Mpshe by Zuma&#8217;s legal team. And almost a decade later, Zuma stands trial in the same court for the same charges which were reinstated by now NPA boss Shaun Abrahams.
The court was packed to full capacity with only 25 journalist allowed inside. Media came from all over the country, the continent and the world. Night vigils and pickets were held outside the night before the court case and on the day the case took place, led by different organizations supporting the former president. These organizations included Transform RSA, Black First Land First led by Andile Mngxitama, student groups from various KZN universities and members of the African National Congress (ANC) ruling party who claimed not to be operating under the party’s name.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC made an announcement a week before the trial that members of the party who liked to support Msholozi, as Zuma is affectionately called, could do so in their own personal capacity and not wear any party regalia. However, ANC members who attended actually did the opposite and when asked if they were defying their own party, countered “you cannot have an ANC without Jacob Zuma”.
Thousands of supporters in front of the Durban High Court chanted struggle songs and praised Zuma.
Zuma addressed the crowds after spending close to 15 minutes inside the court room.
“I keep asking them what have I done for them to keep trying to bring me down but they have no answers but one day they will,” he said.
Among the top-ranking ANC officials in KZN was the province’s MEC for Economic Development and Tourism Sihle Zikalala who vowed to aid in defending the former president.
What is clear is that the ANC in KZN is still divided, with its members committing to prove Zuma’s innocence and unseating current president Ramaphosa before the 2019 elections. On the other hand, some others are calling for his prosecution by the court of law.
This case may take years to be concluded and political wars in the province may not augur well for the ANC.

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It may have turned many a stomach, but it was all in a day’s work for a rookie profiler. Not many can say they have seen a woman smashed with a hammer, chopped with an axe, the blood drained, before being dumped along the Krugersdorp highway, near Johannesburg, in South Africa.
“This was my first crime scene. There were a lot of cars passing on the highway, a lot of policeman and crime scene photographers looking over the body. The scene wasn’t too bloody because most of the blood had been drained in the bath and because the body was kept there, it was preserved a bit,” recalls Gérard Labuschagne.
Labuschagne was 29 years old at the time and just weeks in the job.
“I felt like I was out of my league. I had to use my experience and what I had learned to help find him,” he says.
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And they did.
“When he was caught, at the trial, he said he would have done it again. He contacted and met with estate agents first, claiming he wanted to buy a home… This was the second interior decorator he had invited to his home. We often see this type of behavior in serial killers because they slowly move towards what they want to do by trial run. Contacting estate agents satisfied him for whatever need, perhaps to gain confidence to move forward to the next step,” says Labuschagne.
For 14 years, this was his life, catching killers and locking them up. He investigated over 110 serial killers, over 200 serial rapists, in thousands of cases, trained the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI and became head of the South African Police Services’ (SAPS) specialized Investigative Psychology Section. One of his big cases – the Oscar Pistorius trial.
“I was called to the scene after it happened. Oscar had no right to shoot the gun. There are other things he could have done… After hearing all the evidence, I don’t know whether he intended to kill her specifically. There are things that point towards it but there are also things that point against it. Unfortunately, only he will know.”
Promotions in the job meant management roles which he isn’t passionate about.
“I like working on cases and being on the field. I felt that the organization can’t change because of me. I didn’t see myself doing that for another 17 years so I had to retire,” says Labuschagne.
For a year and a half, he worked towards what he thought was a breakthrough for business.
“I felt our work in the police was very reactive, someone would have been killed or someone would have been raped by the time we are called in. Even if you catch the guy, you can’t bring back the person that has been murdered. We could bring justice and maybe prevent the person from committing the same crimes again, because most of these guys repeat offend, but it’s not enough,” says Labuschagne.
While in the police he noticed more and more businesses were asking them to help assess threats. This was his chance. Labuschagne went into the world of entrepreneurship, founding L&amp;S Threat Management. His life took a turn.
L&amp;S Threat Management focuses on workplace violence, what Labuschagne calls a ticking time bomb.
“We live in a society characterized by violence and conflict. Many of our lives have been touched by threatening behavior and violent crime, and increasingly so in a work environment. We do training for, usually, security people to give them the skills to assess whatever potential threat they have and how to manage it to make sure that the threat isn’t carried out. We also train people on what work place violence is and what concerning things one needs to escalate, concerning warning signs, and consult on cases,” he says.
Their main focus is assessing and managing potential threats of violence in the workplace, including threats by outsiders towards employees, threats between employees, and anonymous threats towards employees because, according to Labuschagne, companies should protect its employees.
“We always think in lines of hard hats and not about safety in terms of violence towards or by your staff in the workplace. If it is part of your job to get threats, it is an onus on the employer to assess if you need a bodyguard or not, how many you need and when. But how does the employer do that if they don’t know how to do threat assessment,” he says.
Labuschagne knows it all inside out.
“I have had death threats which were not made directly to me but were made to third parties, which are actually more concerning. We always say if someone threatens you and says they are going to kill you and put the phone down, there is probably nothing much to worry about, if there are no other behaviors,  because if he is going to kill you, why is he going to tell you. But, in this instance, a guy killed his girlfriend and his father was telling people that he is going to kill me,” he says.
As good as an idea is, convincing companies to fork out money for these services is hard.
“The issue is convincing people to pay for something they have never paid for before. When we start explaining what we do and give an example, they understand there is a need for this service because in most cases they can relate.”
For the man who helped crack the Oscar Pistorius case, it’s all in a day’s work.

The man who helped crack  the Oscar Pistorius case

On the second day of the trial, set to last three weeks, the heavy and cold rain over Pretoria’s Gauteng North High Court, didn’t stop the army of journalists from tussling for a glimpse of the accused outside the court.
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The 27-year-old Paralympic athlete was charged with the murder of his 29-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s day last year. He is out on R1 million ($93,000) bail.
In the tangle of stepladders and tripods there was shoving and anger. Even passing school children and shop workers pushed into the fray.
This is the media frenzy and fuss around Pistorius’ trial. Bernard Hotz, the director and head of the business crimes and forensics practice at Werksmans Attorneys, is one lawyer uncomfortable with it.
“Remember, the person who is on trial here is Oscar Pistorius not the judiciary system. I personally feel that it is problematic for the media to be involved in the way they are. In terms of the bill of rights, the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” says Hotz.
The attorney adds that there’s too much speculation and analysis happening after each word uttered by witnesses, that could hamper the work of the courts.
“If you walk in the street and ask anybody ‘so did he do it or didn’t he do it?’ Most of the people may say he did it, he should go to jail. Whether or not that is right, it can only be decided upon by the judge after hearing all the evidence and applying law,” says Hotz.
But Hotz says he believes the presiding judge, Thokozile Masipa, is strong enough to control the trial.
Masipa, who was once a crime reporter, was stern in court. She warned journalists that if they don’t behave they won’t be treated with soft gloves. This follows the publishing of a picture of a witness, transgressing the conditions of the court.
“You’re dealing with human psychology, if you watch the television, everybody in the court is playing to the audience. That for me runs contrary to our court system in South Africa, bearing in mind we don’t have a jury system here, it’s about presenting evidence to the judge who must decide the case based on the evidence and the law,” says Hotz.
Guilty or innocent, Pistorius will dig deep for this trial.
“Quiet easily, the total cost of the trial, including the year’s preparations, could be anywhere between R6 million ($559,000) and R8 million ($745,000),” says Hotz.
Hotz, senior litigation attorney with 21 years of law experience, says his hourly rate is R3,750 ($350) and R37,500 ($3,500) per day.
“If you take me as an attorney, with my team dealing with a complex civil litigation matter, the cost would be in the same region. Unfortunately, the cost of litigation, not only in South Africa but throughout the world, is exceptionally expensive.”
Pistorius can negotiate a package deal of R100,000 ($9,300) a day for the three weeks of the trial. He could end up paying his legal team up to R2 million ($186,000) over this time.
The price of justice appears to come at a premium.

Tag: Trial

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