Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - April 9, 2006
Charles Molele

THE state prosecutor in ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma's rape trial is known for being meticulous and unyielding in her prosecutorial duties.

She heads up the public prosecutions directorate with the highest conviction record in the land, one which has secured some of the severest sentences to be handed down. Charin de Beer is, in short, a criminal's worst nightmare.

Before assuming the managerial post at the Johannesburg division, De Beer, one of only two women to hold similar jobs in the country, prosecuted more than a dozen criminal offenders who were sent to prison for life.

The National Prosecuting Authority says her 10th floor office at the Johannesburg High Court has seen a dramatic increase in successful prosecutions since she took over in 2003.

The division is now securing life sentences in 52% of the murder cases it successfully prosecutes.

In the first half of 2004 state advocates at the Johannesburg High Court secured 79 life sentences in 36 cases involving 53 accused charged with murder and robbery-related crimes.

Her own appearances in court have been cut back recently by managerial duties, but last year De Beer got life in jail for Ken Downey for beating his business associate, Alec Steenkamp, of Brixton, Johannesburg, to death with a hammer in 1996.

She also made sure Downey received a further six years for burying his victim in a shallow grave and six more for stealing Steenkamp's car.

This week De Beer faced the most powerful person she has dealt with in her 20-year career.

Prodded by last week's refusal by Judge Willem van der Merwe to throw out the case for lack of evidence, De Beer fired on all cylinders on Monday this week.

But Zuma answered with ease, often smiling and laughing at her questions about the alleged rape at his Forest Town home on November 2 last year.

Zuma, the former deputy president of the country, is fighting to save his political career after President Thabo Mbeki sacked him from his post last year when his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was found guilty of corruption in the Durban High Court.

He retained the deputy presidency of the ANC, which has been sharply divided by his trials and tribulations.

His supporters believe that his rape trial - in which a 31-year-old, HIV-positive Aids activist accuses him of raping her - is part of a conspiracy to prevent him from becoming the next president of South Africa.

Denying that he had taken advantage of his accuser and had sex with her against her will, Zuma told the court in Zulu: "Well, my lord, a person can't just come to your bed and just trespass on your bed.

"I believe her intentions were clear.

"She took the initiative ... When she noticed that I was hesitant she encouraged me to go on."

But De Beer unflinchingly challenged his version of the incident, suggesting that he had carefully planned the sexual encounter even though he knew that his accuser regarded him as a father figure.

"No. That is not true," he said more than a dozen times as De Beer went through his every move on the night in question.

On Wednesday afternoon, after she had gone head-to-head with Zuma, De Beer's cross-examination seemed to have lost its sting.

She repeated herself no end and badgered Zuma with long-winded questions he had already answered, particularly his denial of an exchange with police in which he is alleged to have pointed out the guest room as the "scene of the crime".

De Beer gave the impression of someone clutching at straws - and Judge Van der Merwe admonished her for being "unfair" in her questions to the accused.

De Beer wrapped up her cross-examination on Thursday morning by asking whether he had entered his accuser's room with the intention of raping her.

A prominent criminal lawyer attending the case on Thursday attributed De Beer's shortcomings in her cross-examination of Zuma to the fact that she was "usually not operational", probably because of her managerial demands as director.

He said she spent most of her time in her office, rather than in court leading prosecutions.

As director, De Beer's functions include instituting and conducting criminal cases, plus supervising and directing specific investigations.

She also supervises, directs and co-ordinates the work and activities of the deputy director and prosecutors.

However, while defence lawyers sought to discredit Zuma's accuser by detailing episodes of her sexual history, De Beer hit Zuma where it hurts most when she questioned him on things he had said about HIV/Aids.

Zuma testified that he had worked hard to encourage condom use during his stint as the government's point man on HIV/Aids during his days as the former chairman of the SA National Aids Council - but admitted he had not used one during his encounter with the complainant.

He further said that he had showered after having sex with the woman in order to minimise the chances of contracting HIV - this in a country that has the world's highest prevalence of AIDS, with up to five million people infected with the virus.

She left observers saying that Zuma had been exposed as a man of poor judgment, unfit to lead South Africa when Mbeki steps down in 2009.

De Beer, in her 40s, is a very private person, and her personal details are unknown.

She declines to give interviews, and eludes newspaper photographers.

NPA spokesman Makhosini Nkosi would not divulge personal information about De Beer, saying the organisation had made a conscious decision, for "certain reasons", not to publish her profile on its website or give it to the media.

The Sunday Times understands that she began working as a prosecutor in 1986 after obtaining her law degree in 1985.

In 1988 she became an advocate in the Johannesburg High Court until she was appointed deputy director of public prosecutions in 1996.

"She is quite diminutive and seems fragile, but she is in fact a tough cookie," said a colleague.

"She'll cut you to pieces in court with her wit.

"She was the most suitable candidate to lead the state case in the Zuma trial."

The colleague said that when Zuma's rape trial was set down for the Johannesburg High Court earlier this year, De Beer was the first person to come to NPA head Vusi Pikoli's mind.

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