Politicians more interested in a 'place at the trough'

Leading advocate Wim Trengove says South Africa's democracy is 'in peril' because, although the country has a model Constitution, 'powerful political and social groups in our society seem more interested in a place at the trough of largesse that comes with power, than doing the right thing'.

Trengove made these remarks in an interview following his nomination - along with Advocate Kemp J Kemp - as Newsmaker of the Month for January.

The gladiatorial aspect of Jacob Zuma's ongoing legal battle against the state - the matching of senior counsel Trengove and Kemp - not only made for riveting courtroom action, but dominated the news headlines whenever they came to grips. The legal cut-and-thrust, as erudite as it was sometimes surprising, captivated the media and readers alike.

Trengove told Legalbrief that while many were more interested in a place at the trough of largesse, South Africa was desperately in need of moral leadership. 'But I certainly don't believe that all is lost,' he added.

'Recent events in the US have shown how a society on the skids, down the low road, can be turned around and inspired by a charismatic, moral leader. There is no reason why that should not also happen here'.

He also believes South Africans have much cause for concern when it comes to the country's justice system, which is 'badly managed and where there are huge shortages of skills in the agencies responsible for the detection, prosecution and adjudication of crime'.

The problem, Trengove said, had been exacerbated by the abolition of the Scorpions. 'But those are our challenges. There are also some very positive features in our criminal justice system, like the high quality of some of our police, prosecution and judicial services.

'The important thing for us is to continue striving for the high road, and not simply to let go and career down the low road'.

He did not believe that the fate of the Constitution was a matter of belief. 'It is in our hands. It will survive and flourish if we defend and protect it. It will flounder and fail if we don't'.

Trengove believes the media plays a critical role in the country's constitutional democracy.

'They have always done so. They helped to keep the flame of public debate alive in the apartheid days. They continue to play a vital part today, in keeping alive the constitutional values of freedom, accountability and the rule of law'.

This did not mean, however, that the media did not have its own fair share of flaws. 'Of course they are flawed. Some of them are downright destructive. But that is not the point. The point is that the very diversity and openness and freedom of the media, are the qualities that make them such a vital institution in our society'.

Asked what he regarded as his most difficult case ever, Trengove replied: 'I find all cases difficult, so it is hard to say which has been most difficult of all. One that comes to mind was a case I did for the Richtersveld people, for the recovery of their ancestral land which had been appropriated by the British colonial government in the 19th century.

'They were later evicted from the land when rich alluvial diamond fields were discovered there in the 1920s. The case was difficult, particularly because the issues were novel and complex. It was also terribly important to redress the massive injustice done to the vulnerable and forgotten Richtersveld people'.

Concerning his relationship with Kemp, he says this has always been 'collegial and friendly. His client's attacks on the prosecution's attempts to bring Jacob Zuma to trial have been challenging and interesting. But that is, of course, not what the skirmishes in the Zuma case are ultimately about. They are ultimately about the principle that nobody is above the law. And that is a very serious matter'.

The skirmishes highlighted two positive features in South Africa's criminal justice system. 'The first is that the prosecution has the freedom and integrity to bring even the most powerful people to book. The second is that the Constitution and the courts fully protect the right of every accused to a fair trial. The skirmishes do, however, also test the metal of the prosecution to the hilt. So far they have held up admirably. Only time will tell whether they will prevail'.

Trengove's court battles go back many years and have singled him out as an outstanding legal mind and easily one of the country's top advocates.

Writing in The Sunday Independent (August 6, 2006), journalist Jeremy Gordin had this to say about Trengove:

'Johannesburg-based advocate Wim Trengove SC is close to legendary in South African legal circles, and beyond. He is considered, on the basis of his court successes, to be one of the country's top 10 advocates - some would say one of the top three.

'Trengove's delivery is terse, clear and to the point. His arguments are clinically logical. He eschews verbal pyrotechnics of any kind. He is one of the few lawyers to whom one may see a full Bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) paying respectful attention'.

Journalist David Beresford described Trengove thus: 'He cuts an unlikely figure as leader of the South African bar. With his shaven head, one would have thought him more comfortable in leathers, riding a Harley Davidson, than in a lawyer's gown (South African barristers and judges are spared wigs.)

'Yet Trengove has come to dominate the South African Bar to a startling degree. His appearance is a sine qua non for almost every major case, ranging from the death penalty (he argued successfully for its abolition) to his representation of Nelson Mandela, in his divorce action against his wife, Winnie, and the prosecution of Jacob Zuma for alleged fraud.

'He is Afrikaans; his accent is unmistakable. But he says: 'I think of myself as a South African and as a democrat and then, after all of that, I am Afrikaans-speaking. Afrikaner, despite all the protestations, implies white. I don't identify with that white Afrikaner. I identify with people who speak Afrikaans'.'

Beresford recounts that Trengove (57) once nursed ambitions to be a civil engineer but followed his father into law. He was called to the Bar in 1975, exciting times in South African law, thanks in part to a curious paradox - the coexistence of the ruling National Party's preoccupation with legitimacy and its abuse of civil rights.

Writes Beresford: 'It was a dichotomy that resulted in cases such as the inquest into the death in police custody of Steve Biko. Trengove was not in that case, but was junior in another famous case, where the student and labour leader Auret van Heerden sued the police for torture.

'They were what Trengove himself recalls as 'the magic times' in which he found himself allied with former student leaders such as Fink Haysom, later to become Mandela's chief legal adviser in the Presidency, and Geoff Budlender, said to have been described by Prime Minister John Vorster as 'the second most dangerous man in South Africa'.

Trengove nurses obvious pride in the South African legal system, which he ranks among the best in the world. 'We're not the most sophisticated in the world. But we are more progressive than most with regard to civil rights. It gives me quite a kick these days to read the jurisprudence of the American courts, because whereas that society at one time seemed so liberal and free compared to ours, it really seems like an oppressive society these days'.

David Capel