Former judge Nicholson pens new book

JUSTICE Chris Nicholson is the next speaker at the Friends of Kloof Library Forum, which takes place at the Kloof Civic Hall on Thursday 5 September at 6pm.

He will tell stories of his life in the judiciary and will talk about his latest book, One Hand Washes the Other. Judge Nicholson was schooled at Michaelhouse and studied law at the University of Natal.

In 1979, following on the efforts of Arthur Chaskalson in Johannesburg, he founded the Durban chapter of the Legal Resources Centre to assist those who could not afford advice or legal representation.

He successfully challenged the pass laws and he was associated with Archbishop Denis Hurley in his case against the Minister of Law and Order, challenging the right to detain without trial for the purposes of interrogation. In the early 1990s he left the university to become a judge.

He was appointed to the bench in 1995 and later became a senior judge on the Natal Bench. At the end of the 1980s, Judge Nicholson took up a lecturing post at the University of Natal where he taught evidence, civil procedure and professional practice.

After Judge Nicholson retired, he headed a committee appointed by Fikile Mbalula, South African Sport and Recreation Minister that investigated the affairs of the South Africa’s national cricketing body Cricket South Africa (CSA).

Judge Nicholson has written four books, namely Permanent Removal: Who Killed The Cradock Four? (2004), Papwa the Pariah: Golf in Apartheid’s Shadow (2005), Richard and Adolf: Did Richard Wagner Incite Adolf Hitler to Commit the Holocaust? (2007) and his latest book One Hand Washes the Other which will be on sale at the talk.

One Hand Washes the Other is not only a mystery thriller but an in-depth study of contemporary South Africa with its existing fraught cultural and racial relationships.

Tickets will be available from Kloof Library on 031 764 7543 and cost R35 for visitors or R30 for members of Friends.