Court Validates Mandela’s Rugby Probe

It’s unusual to make a sitting president testify in court. Rarer still to force testimony from one with the stature of Nelson Mandela. And downright unheard of for the judge to accuse that president of insolence.

But Mandela’s courtroom ordeal paid off Friday when the nation’s highest court ruled in his favor in the lengthy legal battle over racism in white South Africa’s national pastime: rugby.

The Constitutional Court said Mandela acted properly in setting up a commission two years ago to investigate racism and mismanagement in the South African Rugby Football Union. The panel overturned a lower court ruling that quashed the probe after rugby officials challenged it.

The case resonated deeply in a country emerging from decades of white, racist rule. Few in the black majority follow rugby, preferring soccer, and many see the bruising sport as a symbol of apartheid oppression. But it has a passionate following among Afrikaners--the descendants of mainly Dutch settlers--who dominate the sport.

Many blacks were angered that Mandela was dragged into court and infuriated when Pretoria High Court Judge William de Villiers, named to the bench under apartheid rule, criticized Mandela’s performance on the stand. In his decision, de Villiers cast doubt on Mandela’s credibility, faulted him for hurling “unbridled insults” at the rugby lawyer cross-examining him and criticized Mandela’s “overall demeanor.”

The Constitutional Court--which includes one former Mandela lawyer and an open admirer--came to Mandela’s defense.

Yes, Mandela was “impatient, imperious, hurt, angry and even insulting.” But his attitude was justified given the “circumstances in which he had been ordered to court and by the manner in which he was being cross-examined,” the court said.

The decision emphasized that a sitting president should appear in court only under the most extraordinary circumstances, affirming the principle of separation of powers.

A spokesman for President Thabo Mbeki said an investigation into rugby was probably a moot point given the sport’s recent efforts--under government pressure--to integrate. The union now has a black president, and announced last month that it would install a quota system in the premier national competition.