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| Oscar |
"What is that?" came a voice, gentle but firm, from the judge's bench.
"I'm sorry, my lady," a
foreign journalist stammered over the loud American-accented
announcement issuing from her computer, declaring that it had found
viruses and was beginning a scan.
"Stand up, please," the judge said.
Struggling to silence her computer, the journalist complied as a hush fell over the court.
She repeated her apology, explaining that new software had been installed on her computer and she was closing it down.
The judge regarded the journalist silently, a schoolmistress displeased with a naughty child, as everyone in court looked on.
A long, agonizing moment ticked by.
"You may sit down," the judge instructed the journalist.
Every hand in court instantly reached for a laptop or phone to make sure it was on silent.
The judge had never raised her voice.
Her name is Thokozile Matilda Masipa, and she is the woman who will rule whether Oscar Pistorius is a murderer.
She is the "my lady" all
the witnesses address when testifying, even though they're normally
answering questions from male lawyers.
A diminutive figure who
moves slowly due to arthritis, Masipa has been the still, small center
of the trial, calmly taking notes or watching unruffled, chin resting on
her folded hands, as lawyers preened, witnesses stammered and the
defendant wept.
Ground-breaking career
Masipa was a historic
figure in South Africa even before the world's most famous disabled
athlete landed in her courtroom on a murder charge.
She was the second black
woman to become a judge in the country, turning to the law after a
career as a social worker and a crime reporter for the Sowetan
newspaper.
Mannie Witz, one of South Africa's top defense lawyers, spent a year as her tutor when she was studying to become a lawyer.
He remembers his surprise when he first met her in 1991.
"She was older than me,"
he said of his student. "A black woman, she had a son, a husband. At a
much later stage in life she decided to become an advocate," as South
Africans call some types of lawyers.
She was a star student, Witz said.
"She really applied herself. She passed with flying colors," he said.
A former colleague from her newspaper journalism days has an explanation.
"We were doing things
and Matilda was not there," said Nomavenda Mathiane, using the name by
which Masipa was known in those days. "After work Matilda would go to
the library and study."
Masipa saw a future
which her colleagues could not imagine when black South Africans were
resisting apartheid, her old friend said.
"If you look at where
she came from and where she ended up -- she knew one day we would be
there and (asked herself) 'Will I be ready when we get there?'"
It's hard for outsiders
to see the magnitude of the symbolism of Masipa presiding over this
trial, Mathiane said. "This is a woman from the dusty streets of the
township. Today she is trying a white boy in my lifetime ... I never
thought that would happen."
Through a court clerk,
Masipa declined to answer questions for this article, refusing even to
provide basic biographical details.
A law journal
announcement from March 1999 saying that she had become a judge said she
practiced law from 1991 to 1998 before her appointment to the bench.
It listed her hobbies as dancing, gardening and yoga, and the rehabilitation of offenders as one of her legal interests.
Not swayed by emotions or hype
Witz is confident that Masipa will come to the right decision in the Pistorius case, he said.
"There is a lot of
emotional stuff" surrounding the case, he pointed out, but predicted
Masipa would rule based on the facts and the law.
"She's not the kind of
person that will be swayed by emotions," he said, calling her "diligent"
and "capable -- more than capable."
In fact, Witz argued,
despite all the publicity surrounding the defendant, the actual facts of
the Pistorius case are "not difficult."
Masipa's law clerk
Suzette Naude said the judge had made a conscious decision not to be
swayed by the hype around the case and its star defendant.
"She told me from the
beginning, 'We will treat this case as a normal case, as all other
cases.' She's not showing much emotion about the case. And she's not
telling me how she's feeling, she's very private about it," Naude said.
But the largely impassive woman on the bench shows a different face behind the scenes, her clerk said.
"She's a different
person in court than in the office. She's very relaxed and friendly,"
Naude said. "She's a wonderful judge to work for. I've been working with
her since January and she's just always smiling. Almost like working
for an angel."
Concern for Pistorius
Masipa is assisted by
two experts called assessors. Both of them, Themba Mazibuko and Jannette
Henzen-DuToit, are advocates. They help the judge decide on questions
of fact, but only she can rule on matters of law. South Africa does not
have jury trials.
She has stayed in her post past the normal retirement age of 65, Witz said -- she will be 67 in October.
But she was not chosen specially for the Pistorius case -- she simply happened to be assigned to it, he said.
Lawyers like arguing before her, Witz said.
"She has a good reputation. She's polite. She treats you with courtesy," he said.
She has gone out of her
way to show concern for Pistorius, particularly early in the trial when
he wept, wailed and was violently sick in court, and again during his
seven days on the witness stand.
She stopped proceedings
on occasion to give him time to compose himself, arguing that it would
not be fair to have a defendant who could not represent himself
adequately. (It could in fact be grounds for appeal if he is convicted.)
But she came down hard
on any distractions or interruptions in court, making one of the young
defense lawyers stand and apologize when his phone went off in court,
warning journalists against some uses of Twitter -- thought it was not
clear she was very familiar with Twitter -- and firmly reprimanding a
lawyer who appeared to be enjoying his cross-examination too much.
"This is not entertainment," she rebuked prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
But she also seems to
have flirted gently with Nel on occasion, such as when he stumbled
trying to get his tongue around some technical language.
He stammered, saying it was difficult to pronounce the phrase with her looking at him.
"I won't look at you," she said with a twinkle in her eye and a gentle smile.
Come September 11, though, she will be looking at Oscar Pistorius. He will surely be hoping for a similar smile.
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Oscar Pistorius verdict: South African judge holds athlete's fate in her hands |
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