After Tears

Twenty-Three: Tuesday, February 1

162 tweNtY-three Tuesday, February 1 I was sleeping in Naturena when I was woken by a call from a sergeant Nkuna from the protea Magistrate’s court. It was half past one in the morning. he told me that somebody by the name of Lifa Makhanya had been arrested for assaulting another man in a shebeen and had named me as his lawyer. It was only when I spoke to Lifa Makhanya on the phone that I realised it was zero. “zero, what happened?” I asked. “It was self-defence, Advo. come and get me out. I can’t sleep in this place.” “But I’m in Naturena and I don’t have a car, you know that.” “Ask bra thulani or zinhle, please, Advo.” “You know what time it is now, man? they’re asleep. First thing in the morning I’ll be there.” I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. I was thinking about the challenge that zero’s situation posed me. he had done me a lot of favours, giving me all those free rides to the city, and I felt obliged to pay him back. early that morning, I was on my way to protea Magistrate’s court, where zero had been held overnight, carrying my bogus results under my arm in an envelope. when I had told Mama what had happened to zero, she had given me the moral support that I needed on what was going to be my first day in court. “come on, you can do it, Bafana,” she had said. even dressed smartly in my new black suit, a pink tie and white 163 shirt, I found myself uttering Mama’s exact words loudly to myself as I entered the gates of the protea Magistrate’s court. As soon as I arrived I had a brief talk with Sergeant Nkuna, who told me that zero had insisted that he wanted to talk to me and no one else. Sergeant Nkuna took me down to see zero and, to my surprise, I found that I knew the police guard at the cell door as he also lived in chi. Inside the holding cell there were about eight more people that were all desperate for legal representation. “It’s always like that. Drink and driving, fights, rapes and killings , murder, robbery, housebreaking, you name it,” said Sergeant Nkuna. “And they all claim they’re innocent.” “hectic,” I said. “You must give me your details because there are always people needing representation here. I can recommend you and the two of us can work well together, you know what I mean?” I gave Sergeant Nkuna my card. “Is this your first time representing someone here?” he asked, admiring my freshly printed business card. “Yes.” “You know the procedure, don’t you? You must go to the magistrate that’s holding your case after talking to your client. Your case will be in court 2D and the magistrate’s name is Your worship Moloi. You must go to his office, which is behind the court, and introduce yourself.” that was helpful information, but since I’d come back to Soweto from cape town I’d been observing how things were done. even in cape town I’d often attended wynberg Magistrate’s court. there, in particular, I had learned a lot of things. I was even there when 164 two bogus lawyers were busted while busy making an application for bail on behalf of their client. they made the mistake of calling a magistrate Your Majesty instead of Your worship. Sergeant Nkuna left me alone with zero. his right eye was swollen and blackened. “what happened?” I asked zero as we sat down and talked in the room just outside the cell. “I was drinking at the out of control tavern with Bunju at about eleven last night when her ex-boyfriend came in with his friend. he was drunk and he wanted to take her away from me, but she refused to go with him. he hit her, and when I tried to protect her, he drew a knife on me and threatened to butcher me. As he did that I blocked the knife and cracked my bottle of hansa on his skull. his friends attacked me, but the owner of the tavern called the police. when they arrived I was arrested immediately. You should have seen the...