When Adv Willem van Zyl takes his glasses off, briefly tilts his head up and brushes his closed eyes, everyone in court knows that “dog is about to eat dog” as he squashes his opponent’s argument.
According to the senior advocate at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), that’s an uncontrollable habit he has when he is in deep concentration.
Van Zyl has gained the name “Slow Poison” because he patiently deals with his opponents in court.
With a sharp maths brain, he has spent more than 20 years of his career dealing with commercial crime matters which usually involve tediously studying financial documents and statements to build his case.
He is the lead prosecutor in the Digital Vibes matter, where recently a former senior Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (Misa) official, Lizeka Tonjeni, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for corruption related to the Digital Vibes contract.
She was convicted on one count of corruption involving R160,000.
He is also busy with the corruption trial of national department of health senior official Popo Maja, who is facing two counts of corruption worth R15,000.
Van Zyl also has the distinction of obtaining the first conviction in the country’s legal history for corruption by an athlete in a matter of match-fixing.
At the time there was no legislation criminalising actions of that nature.
Van Zyl also handled the extortion case against a Limpopo man accused of trying to solicit a bribe of R250,000 from convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius to have his murder conviction quashed. The man allegedly claimed to work for the NPA.
He also tackled the case of former Tshwane mayor Murunwa Makwarela, now deceased, who faced two counts of fraud relating to him submitting a rehabilitation court certificate that falsely indicated he was no longer insolvent.
“He spoiled all the fun, he left me. I would have had days of fun in that case. It would have been a perfect point of the slow poison,” he said.
Also on the list of his successes was the case where a couple, Treasure Moremi, 34, and her husband, Moroko Moremi, 37, were convicted for defrauding the department of employment and labour of more than R10m. They were found guilty of fraud.
Born in Kimberley, Northern Cape, and growing up in the eastern Free State town of Bethlehem, the 54-year-old’s interest in law came from his mother who worked at a law firm.
“She is not a qualified attorney herself, but she used to work for attorneys and got me a small holiday job which turned out to be filing. I was exposed to the inner workings of the lawyers, and that is where my interest started,” he said.
He said when he did a career assessment, three paths that suited him included law, journalism and mathematics.
Van Zyl completed his first degree at the end of 1991. At that time he was part of the department of justice’s relief staff complement, going around the country to offer law assistance where needed.
“The first eight-and-a-half years of my career, I drove all over the country,” Van Zyl said.
After Van Zyl married in 1995, it became difficult to drive and be away from home that often.
He became one of the regional court prosecutors in Germiston for three years and landed his current job in 2001.
Being good at maths was an underlying aspect that Van Zyl realised later — directing financial statements, understanding how they’re put together and where the fraud is.
Van Zyl loves that work in the commercial crimes court is clean.
“There is no blood and guts. It’s not less serious, obviously. It’s the most horrific commercial crimes that people commit. But it does not involve violence. I think my personality or analytical ability is better suited to this area of prosecution.”
Van Zyl describes himself as difficult and no-nonsense in court.
“That sometimes unfortunately includes the magistrates and judges. I am not disrespectful, but when I have a stance I take it.”
He said he has never felt that his safety is compromised by his work.
“Maybe I am naive, but I just switch off when it comes to things like this. I must do my job, and if I look for the possibility of danger in every case, then I will be useless as a prosecutor. But in reality, I have never been threatened; I have been attacked in court once, but that was way back and that was a mentally unstable person,” he said.
I just dislike crime ... what [criminals] do to the country.
— Adv Willem van Zyl
He said he survives prosecution work due to his ability to separate his private life from work.
“When I walk into this office and specifically when I walk into court, I put on a certain persona that I need to be for that time that I am there to survive. Outside court I am a nice guy, and in court, I am difficult, that is the stage persona I have to become there to survive and not to be intimidated. I'd rather do the intimidation myself, within the rules and strictures, of course, so I just switch off and become oblivious to these other possibilities,” Van Zyl said.
He soon later realised ‘Slow Poison’ is a compliment for the way he calmly squashes his opponents in court.
“I suppose one thing I do believe in in our line of work, the devil lies in the details. It's always there, it's in every case, you must just go find it, and with experience, you learn what to look for and where to get it. The detail is in your case, this comes from planning your case and studying it,” he said.
Describing some of his qualities, he said: “I think I have a sharp tongue. It hangs over me, sounding like I am sarcastic, and it's been created over years — the persona I have to create for me to be successful in court.”
Van Zyl said he is driven by his hate of crime.
“I just dislike crime ... what [criminals] do to the country. I grew up at the time in a middle-class fairly conservative Calvinistic white Afrikaans-speaking house. Good parents, no problems, I did not grow up in a house where politics was spoken of or taught at all. We were taught this is what you do, this is right, and this is why, you don't do this and this is why, and that stuck. What crime, or even the perception of crime, does to our country is horrific.”
Though Van Zyl would have loved to prosecute all the criminals, he acknowledges that is work he must tackle one case at a time.
His love for his two daughters is unquestionable, and he races pigeons for fun.
“It is debatable whether I am the best commercial prosecutor in the country, but I will bet you money I am the best dad.”
