Durban – "All is well. I now know that justice is for the affluent and the learned.”
These were the words of Lindiwe Nxele – the woman who accused retired Judge President of KwaZulu-Natal, Chiman Patel, of crimen injuria – after the charges against him were dropped.
Nxele accused Judge Patel of shouting at her, pointing his finger and calling her “nonsense, trash, rubbish and useless”, when he reprimanded her in his chambers in 2013.
On the day his criminal trial was to start, the charges against Judge Patel were withdrawn and he is now suing the State for R3 million for malicious prosecution.
His civil trial got under way in the Durban High Court this week. On Monday Judge Patel recalled his version of events.
“I asked her who was her boss and she answered that it was the Department of Justice. I raised both my hands and turned to Marais (court manager Karlien Marais) and said, ‘Do I have to cope with this sort of rubbish?’
"Nxele asked why I was calling her rubbish. I explained that I had not and Marais said the same thing.”
Nxele – who stands by her version of events – gave evidence on Thursday.
A letter she penned to the Department of Justice, after the charges were withdrawn and Judge Patel had proceeded with civil action, was read out in court.
“I consulted two psychiatrists about this matter,” she wrote. “And the words he muttered are still cluttering in my ears, particularly because he fervently denied ever insulting me and he is now suing me simply because he has money.”
In her letter, Nxele went on to request that the department not “give the judge the money he is asking for”.
“He knows very well he did insult me,” she wrote. “It may well be he is trying to use me to protect his dignity by suing me.”
During the course of this week, it emerged that Judge Patel called Nxele into his office after she and his secretary at the time had earlier that day exchanged words over the phone about a stationery requisition.
Nxele claimed a colleague told her that the secretary, Devika (Roma) Morar, called her “incompetent”, but Morar denied having used the word.
During cross-examination, Judge Patel’s advocate, Richard Salmon, put it to Nxele that she had been agitated on the day of the incident and that she had “jumped to the conclusion” that Morar had called her “incompetent”, perhaps, without fully understanding the word’s meaning.
“You were angry, you were emotional, you were tearful,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for your misunderstanding of the word ‘incompetent’ you would never have phoned Ms Morar and we would not be here today”.
Nxele refuted this, saying if Morar had fetched her stationery, they would not be there.
The trial continues.