Interview with Former High Court Judge and Author Chris Nicholson

 

By Fred Felton | Feb. 4, 2025

The former High Court judge and award-winning author Chris Nicholson is back with a new book titled Who Really Killed Chris Hani?, with his many years as a lawyer and then High Court judge, Nicholson has presided over many high-profile and sensitive cases.

Who Really Killed Chris Hani? the new book by Chris Nicholson. Photo: Supplied. 

He certainly brings all of his experience with him as he takes readers on a journey into an event that became a critical time in our country’s history.

Nicholson has also built a formidable second reputation as an award-winning author, with eight books and a play to his name. Two of his previous nonfiction works were nominated for the Alan Paton Award.

In his new book, Who Really Killed Chris Hani?, Nicholson uses his experience as a judge to look at the events that pushed South Africa to the brink. He drew on court records, intelligence material, and investigative journalism and looked at all the evidence.

The book is a deep dive into investigative history and has the pace of a thriller and also the weight of legal judgement. It certainly raises some interesting questions for the reader.

I managed to sit down with Chris Nicholson and ask him some questions around the book and about writing.

Why did you write the book?

‘’I wrote the book because I felt compelled to capture a set of ideas and experiences that I believe are both timely and enduring. It was driven by a desire to contribute something meaningful to the conversation, something honest, reflective, and useful. At its core, the book is about sharing perspective on the lessons learned along the way, the mistakes as much as the successes, and the hope that readers might see parts of themselves in the story and feel encouraged to think differently or act more boldly.’’

How long did it take you to write it?

‘’From first concept to final manuscript the book took just over two years, but the idea and research has been 10 years in the making. While the actual writing came in concentrated bursts, much of the time was spent thinking, refining ideas, researching, and allowing the narrative to mature. I’ve learned that writing a book is as much about patience and discipline as it is about inspiration.’’

Your advice for young authors?

‘’Write consistently, even when you don’t feel inspired, and don’t wait for permission to begin. Read widely, edit ruthlessly, and accept that your first draft is not meant to be perfect. Most importantly, write with authenticity, your voice and perspective are your greatest assets. The courage to finish is often more important than the talent to start.’’

His new book is available directly via Chris Nicholson’s website https://chrisnicholson.co.za or from Exclusive Books or Amazon.

Give your audience a serious wedgie by @DouglasKruger

This week professional speaker, author and trainer Douglas Kruger writes for us.

Douglas Kruger

GIVE YOUR AUDIENCE A SERIOUS WEDGIE! 

Douglas Kruger

Scores of corporate presentations today still suffer from the scourge of the dreaded Document-Speak. Document-Speak is a sort of social virus. One person does it in public and the whole company catches it.

Diagnosing Document-Speak:

It happens when an otherwise friendly, warm-blooded human being ceases to sound human and starts sounding like a legal brief. They stand up before an audience and their sentences become longer. They hide behind formality and distance. They go to great pains to appear as emotionally deceased as language can help them to achieve. For a coup de grace, they generally back it all up with a mind-numbing litany of PowerPoint slides. The end result is predictable: mass air-gulping among the audience. When the speaker leaves the room, their points become mist rather than memories.

There is a better way:

Experienced speakers know that public speaking is a thrillingly powerful medium. The human mind sits up and takes notice when another human speaks with passion and conviction. We’re wired that way. But passion and conviction are choices, and their design is largely informed by language.

What sort of language?

Good speakers don’t do Document-Speak. They practice the alternative: High-Impact speak. High-Impact speak is emotive, creative and vivid. It gets you noticed and it keeps your messages front of mind, long after you’ve left.

Looking for a little electricity in your own presentations? Use the following six devices to add sizzle to your sentences:

1. Start by sounding human

When you chat with your friends, would you use a sentence like, “It is has come to my notice, in terms of our internal policies, that wasteful expenditure is causing a detrimental effect upon our bottom-line profits”? Doubtful. A human being would say, “We’re wasting too much and it’s hurting us.”

Remember that you are the thought-leadership in the room. When your audience perceives that you have slipped into ‘formal speech delivery’ mode, they will subconsciously switch off. It’s as if you have given them the cue: ‘Here comes the speechy stuff; you may all go to sleep. I’ll wake you when I’m really communicating again.’ A conversational tone keeps them engaged.

2. Craft interesting titles

Yes, you can deliver an address titled ‘A Critical Look at the History and Production of Fireworks.’ But how much more engaging to have the MC say, ‘Help me to welcome Joe, with his speech titled ‘Bang! – Making the Fire Work!’

One of my keynote speeches is about the topic of personal initiative. I call it ‘The Rules of Hamster Thinking.’ Your title is an opportunity to create interest before you even stand to speak. Take the time to develop a hook.

3. Metaphors help you to sum up complex ideas quickly

Certainly, you can show a busy graph depicting the in’s and out’s of any idea. Or you could simply use a metaphor that captures the essence of the idea, and say, “It’s like…”

On the runaway success television show, Top Gear, British presenter Richard Hammond once described a Porsche’s rear-mounted engine as being, “A bit like building a pyramid with the pointy bit at the bottom.”

Metaphors sum up complex ideas quickly. Most of the detail in corporate presentations is superfluous, because there is a world of difference between mere information and actual message. Information requires graphs. Message can be done with metaphors.

Professional speakers and trained Toastmasters rarely use fussy PowerPoint graphs. They know that having information is only half of a speaker’s job. Communicating that information in impactful and memorable ways is the full obligation.

4. Repeat catch-phrases often and your point will be remembered

Simple. Memorable. Easy to repeat.

Advertisers know the value of a good catch-phrase, and top speakers understand it too. Remember the old war-time phrase ‘Loose lips sink ships’? That’s the kind of easy-to-repeat mnemonic slogan you should develop and use often in your presentations.

5. Alliteration adds impact

In one of my contest speeches, I spoke about the glib nature of self-help quick fixes. I packaged it in the following sentence: “The treadmill of self-improvement churns out Kellogg’s Rice Competitors, Kentucky Fried Performers, Supersized McMen and Women; egos bigger than buildings.” Alliteration adds musicality to your sentences. Its rapid-fire nature also helps you to create the impression of being ‘on a roll’ when you speak, which adds to the perception of passion.

6. Visual devices bring dry information to life

Don’t just give information. Create mental pictures. The human mind becomes more engaged when points are delivered in story form, with character, setting, emotion and the description of action. We do not ‘feel’ a PowerPoint graph the way that we feel a story.

Use language that creates the perception that you are ‘re-living’ the story as you tell it, and you will pin souls to seats and set fire to minds. Best of all, you will be remembered.

The next time you pen a presentation, challenge yourself to raise the bar on your use of language. Remember that Document-Speak kills speeches. High-Impact language gives your script mouth-to-mouth. The human mind sits up and takes notice when a person speaks with passion and conviction. Take the time and trouble to design language that captures the imagination – give them a linguistic wedgie! – and your audiences will thank you for it.

Douglas Kruger is a 5 x winner of the SA Championships for Public Speaking and author of '50 Ways to Become a Better Speaker.' Read about his topics or see him in action at www.douglaskruger.co.za. Connect with him on Linked In or Twitter: @douglaskruger. Email:kruger@compute.co.za