Christopher Robert Nicholson
Encyclopedia
Christopher Robert Nicholson (born 1945) is a South African high court judge
and a former cricket
er, who played one first-class match
for South African Universities in 1967. He attained prominence as a judge when he ruled that the South African Government had tampered with the evidence in the case against Jacob Zuma
, an act that led to the resignation of the President of South Africa
, Thabo Mbeki
.
, Natal
, South Africa
and was educated at Michaelhouse
and at the University of Natal
where he read law. He is a cousin of the brothers Peter
and Graeme Pollock
who played Test cricket
for South Africa, and is a brother to Ravenor Nicholson
, another first class cricketer and is also a cousin of the writer Alan Paton
.
He represented the South African Universities against North Eastern Transvaal as a right-hand off spin
bowler and a left-handed batsman. He took 3 for 58 in the match and batting at number 9, scored a total of 17 runs.
By the time Nicholson left university, the question of racial segregation in South African sport had led to South Africa’s exclusion from the Olympic Games
and in 1968 the English cricket team withdrew from a tour of South Africa due the South African government’s objection to the inclusion of Basil d’Oliveria
, a South African born coloured
player who had emigrated to the United Kingdom
in order to play professional cricket. In 1971, leading South African cricketers left the field in a token protest against Apartheid during a match to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Republic of South Africa.
In 1973 Nicholson was among the founders of the Aurora Cricket Club – a mixed race club that applied for affiliation to the Maritzburg Cricket Union (MCU) and for inclusion in the all-white local cricket league. The club’s inclusion in the league was supported by the Natal Cricket Association, and refused to be bullied by intimidatory police tactics such as taking the names of players and spectators - after each match the club voluntarily handed the police a list of all players.
in Johannesburg, founded the Durban chapter of the Legal Resources Centre
(LRC) to assist those who could not afford advice or legal representation. One such case was the 1984 challenge he successfully brought against the pass laws, which were intended to restrict "idle and undesirable" people to rural confines. In another case in 1986 his name was closely associated with Archbishop Denis Hurley's case against the minister of law and order when he turned the internal security laws on their head by challenging the right to detain for purposes of interrogation.
By the end of that decade the challenge had begun to take its toll. Exhausted, and diagnosed with Chronic fatigue syndrome
, Nicholson resigned from his position at the LRC and took up a lecturing post at the Durban campus of the University of Natal where he taught evidence
, civil procedure
and professional practice. The slower pace of life in academia
allowed him to spend time following his other pursuits – music and sport and to recover his health.
, set up by Ebrahim Rasool
to probe allegations of bribery
in the City of Cape Town
, finding that the former premier had abused his provincial powers.
Jacob Zuma
was the deputy president of South Africa, leader of the African National Congress
and poised to succeed Thabo Mbeki
as President of South Africa
. He was dismissed as deputy president by Mbeki in June 2005 when his financial advisor Schabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud. Zuma was subsequently charged with corruption by the National Prosecuting Authority
. On 28 December 2007, after various procedural delays the Scorpions
(A government anti-corrpution and anti-fraud investigation branch) served Zuma an indictment to stand trial in the High Court on various counts of racketeering
, money laundering
, corruption
and fraud
. Zuma appealed against the charges and on 12 September 2008 Nicholson held that Zuma's corruption charges were unlawful on procedural grounds. In his judgment Nicholson also wrote that he believed that there was political interference in the timing of the charges being brought against Zuma. Although this was initially denied by Mbeki, Mbeki was forced to resign on 20 September 2008.
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
and a former cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, who played one first-class match
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for South African Universities in 1967. He attained prominence as a judge when he ruled that the South African Government had tampered with the evidence in the case against Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
, an act that led to the resignation of the President of South Africa
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
, Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
.
Early life and sporting career
Nicholson was born on 5 February 1945 on a farm near Richmond, KwaZulu-NatalRichmond, KwaZulu-Natal
Richmond is a town situated on the banks of the upper Illovo River in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, approximately 38 km south-west of Pietermaritzburg. Timber, sugarcane, poultry, citrus fruit and dairy goods are produced here...
, Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and was educated at Michaelhouse
Michaelhouse
Michaelhouse is a full boarding senior school for boys founded in 1896. It is located in the Balgowan valley in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.- History :...
and at the University of Natal
University of Natal
The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...
where he read law. He is a cousin of the brothers Peter
Peter Pollock
Peter Maclean Pollock, has played a continuing role in the South Africa cricket team as a player, selector, and father of a future captain. He was voted a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1966...
and Graeme Pollock
Graeme Pollock
Robert Graeme Pollock, known as Graeme, is a former cricketer. He played in 23 Test matches for South Africa and represented Transvaal and Eastern Province at domestic level....
who played Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for South Africa, and is a brother to Ravenor Nicholson
Ravenor Nicholson
Ravenor Nicholson is a former cricketer, who played four seasons of first-class matches for Natal cricket team. A right-hand batsman and medium pace bowler, his only first-class half century was 89 not out for Natal B against Transvaal B in December 1967...
, another first class cricketer and is also a cousin of the writer Alan Paton
Alan Paton
Alan Stewart Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist.-Family:Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province , the son of a minor civil servant. After attending Maritzburg College, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Natal in his hometown, followed...
.
He represented the South African Universities against North Eastern Transvaal as a right-hand off spin
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
bowler and a left-handed batsman. He took 3 for 58 in the match and batting at number 9, scored a total of 17 runs.
By the time Nicholson left university, the question of racial segregation in South African sport had led to South Africa’s exclusion from the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and in 1968 the English cricket team withdrew from a tour of South Africa due the South African government’s objection to the inclusion of Basil d’Oliveria
Basil D'Oliveira
Basil Lewis D'Oliveira CBE , known affectionately around the world as "Dolly", was a South African-born English cricketer. D'Oliveira was classified as 'coloured' under the apartheid regime, and hence barred from first-class cricket, resulting in his emigration to England...
, a South African born coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
player who had emigrated to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in order to play professional cricket. In 1971, leading South African cricketers left the field in a token protest against Apartheid during a match to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Republic of South Africa.
In 1973 Nicholson was among the founders of the Aurora Cricket Club – a mixed race club that applied for affiliation to the Maritzburg Cricket Union (MCU) and for inclusion in the all-white local cricket league. The club’s inclusion in the league was supported by the Natal Cricket Association, and refused to be bullied by intimidatory police tactics such as taking the names of players and spectators - after each match the club voluntarily handed the police a list of all players.
Legal Resources Centre
In 1979 Nicholson, following on the efforts of Arthur ChaskalsonArthur Chaskalson
Arthur Chaskalson, is a former President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and Chief Justice of South Africa...
in Johannesburg, founded the Durban chapter of the Legal Resources Centre
Legal Resources Centre
The Legal Resources Centre is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg , Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown...
(LRC) to assist those who could not afford advice or legal representation. One such case was the 1984 challenge he successfully brought against the pass laws, which were intended to restrict "idle and undesirable" people to rural confines. In another case in 1986 his name was closely associated with Archbishop Denis Hurley's case against the minister of law and order when he turned the internal security laws on their head by challenging the right to detain for purposes of interrogation.
By the end of that decade the challenge had begun to take its toll. Exhausted, and diagnosed with Chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is the most common name used to designate a significantly debilitating medical disorder or group of disorders generally defined by persistent fatigue accompanied by other specific symptoms for a minimum of six months, not due to ongoing exertion, not substantially...
, Nicholson resigned from his position at the LRC and took up a lecturing post at the Durban campus of the University of Natal where he taught evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
, civil procedure
Civil procedure
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits...
and professional practice. The slower pace of life in academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
allowed him to spend time following his other pursuits – music and sport and to recover his health.
Advocate and judge
In the early 1990s he left the university and took silk to enable him to become a judge. He was appointed to the bench in 1995, one of the first in post-Apartheid South Africa. He was later appointed to the Labour Appeal Court, and later became senior judge on the Natal bench. In 2006 he found the government to be in contempt of court over the provision of antiretrovirals for prisoners at Westville Prison and in mid-2008 he ruled against the Erasmus CommissionErasmus Commission
The Erasmus Commission was an investigative commission set up by former ANC Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool to investigate claims that the Democratic Alliance, led by Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille, had improperly used public funds to engage in espionage against the DA's opponents. It was headed...
, set up by Ebrahim Rasool
Ebrahim Rasool
Ebrahim Rasool was the Premier of the Western Cape province in South Africa. He is a member of the African National Congress.Anti-Apartheid Struggle Activist:...
to probe allegations of bribery
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
in the City of Cape Town
City of Cape Town
The City of Cape Town is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of 2007, it had a population of 3,497,097....
, finding that the former premier had abused his provincial powers.
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is the President of South Africa, elected by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general election....
was the deputy president of South Africa, leader of the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
and poised to succeed Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
as President of South Africa
President of South Africa
The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....
. He was dismissed as deputy president by Mbeki in June 2005 when his financial advisor Schabir Shaik, was convicted of corruption and fraud. Zuma was subsequently charged with corruption by the National Prosecuting Authority
National Prosecuting Authority
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , created a single National Prosecution Authority , which is governed by the National Prosecuting Authority Act...
. On 28 December 2007, after various procedural delays the Scorpions
Scorpions (South Africa)
The Directorate of Special Operations was a multidisciplinary agency that investigated and prosecuted organised crime and corruption. It was a unit of The National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa. Its staff of 536 consisted of some of the best police, financial, forensic and intelligence...
(A government anti-corrpution and anti-fraud investigation branch) served Zuma an indictment to stand trial in the High Court on various counts of racketeering
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...
, money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
, corruption
Corruption
Corruption usually refers to spiritual or moral impurity.Corruption may also refer to:* Corruption , an American crime film* Corruption , a British horror film...
and fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
. Zuma appealed against the charges and on 12 September 2008 Nicholson held that Zuma's corruption charges were unlawful on procedural grounds. In his judgment Nicholson also wrote that he believed that there was political interference in the timing of the charges being brought against Zuma. Although this was initially denied by Mbeki, Mbeki was forced to resign on 20 September 2008.
Books written by Nicholson
Nicholson has written a number books that reflect his other interests:- Permanent Removal: Who Killed The Cradock Four? (2004) - Nicholson documents the cover-up and subsequent exposure of the murder of four anti-Apartheid activists, "The Craddock Four", in the Eastern CapeEastern CapeThe Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province...
. - Papwa the Pariah: Golf in Apartheid's Shadow (2005) - A biography of Papwa Sewgolum, a South African golfer of IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n descent who, on account of the colour of his skin, had to receive the trophy for winning the Natal Open Golf Tournament in the rain as he was refused admission to the whites-only clubhouse. - Richard and Adolf: Did Richard Wagner Incite Adolf Hitler to Commit the Holocaust? (2007) - Nicholson investigates the degree to which Wagner'sRichard WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
anti-semetic views might have influenced HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.