A TRIBUTE TO A KIND-HEARTED LEGEND
Written by: Catrin ver Loren van Themaat, who was a librarian at the Legal Resources Centre and the Constitutional Litigation Unit of the Legal Resource Centre from 1990-2010.
George Bizos joined the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in 1991 at the request of his friend and professional colleague Arthur Chaskalson. Since the 80’s, George worked with the LRC on several cases, but as an independent counsel. He was, therefore, familiar with the case work and ethos of the LRC, but was at first reluctant to join. He did not want to become involved in the day to day running of a non-government organisation. After seven months in which George was allowed to “try out” working at the LRC and taking on private cases at the same time, he formally joined the organisation.
Everyone at the LRC can vouch for his open door policy. He became a mentor to scores of candidate attorneys, who completed their articles at the LRC in the more than 25 years that George remained at the organisation. Not only could they learn cross- examination and court skills from one of the finest in the country, but all at the LRC also gained an understanding of the Classics through George’s references to Greek Philosophy and Literature. He applied that to how he understood the law. He was a wonderful story-teller and sitting around a huge shared bowl of wonderful salad, freshly prepared and picked from his vegetable garden, LRC staff were regaled by stories about his legal career, his family and his life experiences.
Many a time the Bram Fischer Library of the Legal Resources Centre was off limit for the staff as George was being interviewed by international or national members of the press. He received them with the same warmth that he greeted ordinary persons that recognised him in the street.
He had a brilliant legal mind and could remember cases by year, dating back to the early history of South Africa. During his time at the LRC, George was involved in many important cases, inquests and trials, some of which are listed in his CV. However, there were also numerous other cases that he became involved in like “the case of the missing teapot”, (where George assisted a family friend to retrieve a Russian samovar tea set that mysteriously ended up in a pawn shop, through involvement by LRC attorneys), or confronting a school to assist a domestic worker unable to pay school fees and trying to get her child admitted into a Model C school. No matter was too insignificant for George- he never turned anyone away.
Now it is up to all of us and up to a new generation of lawyers to carry on the fight for justice in the world.
Consult the following websites for the detailed biography of George Bizos: