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A thread on cross examination, George Bizos and Geoff Budlender
I don’t get to see much cross examination as I normally cover motion court proceedings. But cross examination is a special skill and when it’s done well, wow.
One of the best cross examinations I ever saw was by Geoff Budlender SC. The case was an Equality Court matter in the Pretoria Magistrates Court. A shareholder of the Reserve Bank took the governor at the time @tito_mboweni to the Equality Court accusing Mboweni of being racist
(I don’t remember dude’s name but yes, he was)
Anyway, as I said, I can’t remember the guy’s name. But during his evidence in chief he waxed lyrical about how he was a victim of Mboweni’s racism. Geoff Budlender SC acted for Mboweni. So, came time for cross examination, and Budlender got up
This guy had created a few straw men. Budlender just ignored them. Instead he, in the mildest way, asked him a series of very innocuous sounding questions about what had happened in this meeting that led to this so-called racist incident. Shareholder guy prattled away answering.
Softly softly gently gently Budlender carried on. Until this guy had finally painted himself into a corner where the only possible answer was that it was in fact him that was the racist one.
But guys. When this man realised this, he collapsed. I don’t mean figuratively, I mean he *literally* physically keeled over and collapsed. An ambulance had to be called and the case had to be adjourned. It was the most extraordinary thing.
He was ok in the end shem and the case continued (I even naively thought he might withdraw when it dawned on him but nah) some weeks later. Of course he lost the case, with the magistrate saying the whole thing was a storm in a teacup.
His comment afterwards if I recall correctly was that it may have been a storm in a teacup but “it was my teacup.” 
I’m telling you this story because today I sent the December edition of Advocate to the printers. In it Geoff Budlender SC describes a time when he was a young lawyer and what he learnt about how to prepare for a trial from George Bizos. It’s fascinating and there is even poetry
involved. I don’t want to ruin it by telling you the rest but the package we have on George Bizos SC is lovely and moving and I hope a fitting tribute to him.
There are so many, but I think my fave moment in all the contributions is when Bizos went to visit Gcina Malindi SC in prison to tell him he had a baby girl 
That’s my thread. Good night.
