Celebrate Human Rights Day with Law, Love & Betrayal

To celebrate Human Rights Day on Saturday, 21 March, we asked SAFTA-winning Law, Love and Betrayal Head Writer Dorette Nel, and Series Producer and Director Christo Davids (who has an LL.B, aside from being a household name as an actor) to chat about two of our most important rights – access to legal representation, and the right to access courts – and how they come into Law, Love & Betrayal Season 2.

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Watch Law, Love & Betrayal Season 2 on Sundays at 8pm on Mzansi Magic Channel 161. Available on Catch Up and DStv Stream.

10 series to watch in Human Rights Month

The right to representation, which falls under one of South Africa’s key Constitutional rights for Arrested, Detained and Accused Persons, is a huge factor in what makes Law, Love & Betrayal (LLB) so fascinating. Because even if someone believes they’re guilty, the case is not cut and dried, and nor is the sentence – no matter what the police or the neighbours think. And that means a lot of debate in the writers’ room.

Dorette, Christo and the LLB highlighted this throughout Season 2, but especially in Episode 2, when MaJali (Maki Mokhitli) comes to Gumede & Associates (and not the police) looking for help immediately after she kills her drug-addicted son, in a story partly based on one of South Africa’s most sensational trials.

“What I learned from Christo is that law is all about not loopholes, but legality. Everything can be proved right or wrong. Literally anything,” says Dorette. “It helps that Christo does have a legal background, so he was our first port of call. He would just go, ‘Great idea, but not gonna happen like that’. For instance, would the person definitely walk away in a certain case? Will they get off? And he'll go, ‘No, not necessarily.’”

“The onus is on the prosecutor, or whoever is accusing you, to prove – without any doubt – that your intention was illegal; that what you did was illegal; and that the outcome was illegal,” adds Dorette. “Sometimes people would commit an offense without intention, and that changes the whole scenario. Or sometimes people will have the intention, but there's a legal loophole to get by. It's like that famous Ellen Pakkies story. We based one of our episodes on something similar, but we’ve put a twist or two on it. It's one of those things that, from the outside, you could look at her and go: murderer. But once you start unpacking the whole story and look at all the angles, then suddenly you go, ‘Well, maybe it's not as black and white.’ And that's the thing with law."

“The facts might point to the fact that a woman is guilty, and she might be guilty, but is she legally guilty? That's the difference. You are innocent until proven guilty,” insists Christo. “If you look at the Ellen Pakkies case, for example: Ellen pleaded guilty to the murder of her son. She was not found ‘Not Guilty’; she was found Not Guilty of Dolus Directus (direct intent), which would have meant that she had a premeditated intent to kill her child. And her criminal capacity was diminished by the stress and everything else that her drug-addicted child put her through. She didn't have full capacity when she was acting.”

So even with literal blood on her hands, holding the murder weapon, MaJali had a case!

As well as viewers enjoying all the dramatic interpersonal backstabbing and legal conniving, the LLB team is hoping to educate South Africa about our rights, too. “Through the story, we can explain certain things to an audience that they might not have been aware of,” says Christo. “For example, if you sleep with someone who has HIV and that person did not disclose their HIV status to you, you have a case because your rights were infringed. That can be regarded as a criminal act on that infected person's behalf.” 

And you won’t necessarily need to cough up the cash for Gumede & Associates or even Sandra Stein (Shannon Esra) to plead your case and ensure that your Human Rights are met, thanks to Legal Aid and the CCMA. “You get a lawyer who can actually represent you. It sounds like a small thing, but it's a huge thing,” says Dorette. “There is so much abuse going on in terms of laborers. We even did a small piece on waiters, and how many waiters in our country do not know that they actually are regulated. They should have a legal contract with hours and set rates, which most of them don't,” says Dorette.

Before you tune in and lawyer-up, we have one last question for the defence: how did Christo wind up on Newzroom Afrika (in the real-life news studio) announcing that Ayanda had gotten her own sister, Gugu (Dineo Rasedile), disbarred after Season 1?

“I can tell you I don't have money to get an actor to do it!” jokes Christo. “I was the director of the episode. I wrote the episode. I might as well act in the episode! Actually, we shot it at Newzroom Afrika. The people there who were helping us set up, one of the ladies there said to me, ‘Is this what you do? Which channel are you on?’ And I said, ‘No, I'm not a news reader.’ She says, ‘Wow, you look so relaxed in it.’ Well, I might not be able to do it, but I can act it!”

Watch Law, Love & Betrayal Season 2 on Sundays at 8pm on Mzansi Magic Channel 161. Available on Catch Up and DStv Stream.

10 series to watch in Human Rights Month