'Judge' Justin joins the greats

2006-01-20 08:54

Philip de Bruin

Pretoria - From manufacturer of satirical T-shirts to Constitutional Court "judge" - that's exactly what Justin Nurse, of Black Label/Black Labour, White Guilt-fame, did this week.

But only for three days, until a security guard recognised the new "judge" and kicked him out.

Nurse and his one-man business Laugh it Off last year caused ripples even overseas after the constitutional court had decided his T-shirt humour was satirical and that his freedom of speech outweighed SA Brewery's trade mark.

The ruling was widely regarded as one of the most important in the country about immaterial goods law but was also the starting point for Nurse's latest joke.

While his case was heard in the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein, Nurse got onto the bench during lunch to have his photograph taken behind the chief judge's chair.

Surrounded by famous judges

"Those guys were so sour, I thought I'd liven them up a bit."

He had the picture enlarged and when he returned to the constitutional court to deliver some of his T-shirts to fans on Monday, he waited until everything was quiet before getting up to mischief.

He put up his picture among those of constitutional court judges in a passageway.

He was "officially, unofficially" a judge of the court - with his young face next to that of the impressive (retired) judge Richard Goldstone.

And he was surrounded by famous judges such as Arthur Chaskalson, Pius Langa, Johann Kriegler, the late John Didcott, Laurie Ackermann, the late Ismail Mahomed and other serving judges of the court.

"Judge" Justin Nurse remained among them until a security guard recognised him on Wednesday afternoon and summarily removed him from the gallery.

"Just a joke, man, to make people smile a bit," explained the young businessman from Cape Town.

He said the ruling on his case mentioned that "humour was the elixer of the constitutional court and I wanted to quickly prove it".

Court staff thoroughly enjoyed the joke, albeit secretly whenever a real judge approached.

- Beeld