Sitting judge: 1988–2001 Heath began his career as a public prosecutor and later entered private practice as an
advocate in
Pretoria. In 1988, he was appointed as a judge of the
Transvaal Provincial Division of the
Supreme Court of South Africa, but he sat on secondment in the
Ciskei Supreme Court, which had its seat in
Bhisho in the
Ciskei bantustan. His notable judgments included
S v Ncanywa, an authoritative opinion on
marital rape. He remained on the bench after the
end of apartheid in 1994, and between 1995 and 1997 he chaired a major commission of inquiry, the so-called Heath Commission, into
corruption and maladministration in the
Eastern Cape Province. When the commission closed, President
Nelson Mandela appointed Heath as the inaugural head of the
Special Investigating Unit (SIU), a specialized anti-corruption law enforcement unit. The unit recovered over
R1.5 billion in assets during its first year in operation, and Heath was named the Johannesburg Press Club's Newsmaker of the Year in 1999. As SIU head, he was known for his aptitude for
public relations, but he also clashed with politicians of the governing
African National Congress (ANC) – notably with
Penuell Maduna, who became
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development after
Thabo Mbeki succeeded Mandela as president in
1999. The tensions were partly attributed to Heath's efforts to investigate ANC involvement in the
Arms Deal. Political commentator
Richard Calland later chided Heath for having "blundered about trying to play politics." In November 2000, the
Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled unanimously that Heath's leadership of the SIU was inconsistent with the
Constitution, because it violated the
separation of powers to have a sitting judge oversee the SIU's investigative functions. Although the court granted Heath a one-year grace period while the government sought his successor, Heath took long leave from 1 February 2001. Explaining that "I would feel uncomfortable returning to the judiciary" after six years off the bench, After Heath's resignation took effect on 1 July 2001, Mbeki appointed
Willie Hofmeyr to replace him as head of a restructured SIU. Fifteen years later, Heath sued to recover his judicial retirement benefits, challenging the
rationality of Mbeki's decision to deny him discharge; the application was dismissed in the
Western Cape High Court in December 2017.
Consultant: 2001–2011 Upon his resignation from the bench, Heath said that he would start a private legal consultancy and
forensic investigations firm in
Cape Town, "pointing out loopholes and advising clients how to avoid committing crime in running their businesses." He and his youngest son, Marius, founded Heath Executive Consultants, which rose to prominence partly for its work on behalf of mining magnates
Roger Kebble and
Brett Kebble. In addition, in 2005, Heath announced that he had been hired by former deputy president
Jacob Zuma, President Mbeki's primary political rival, to advise Zuma on the merits of
pending corruption charges against him. Opposition politician
Sheila Camerer suggested that the Kebbles might be paying Heath's fees on Zuma's behalf. Heath became a voluble critic of the prosecution in the press.
Return to the SIU: 2011 On 29 November 2011, President Zuma announced that he had decided to restore Heath to his former position as head of the SIU. Heath replaced
Willie Hofmeyr, who had retained the position since 2001, with immediate effect. However, days after the appointment, Heath gave a controversial interview to the
City Press, in which he accused former president Mbeki of having commandeered the
National Prosecuting Authority to pursue corruption and
rape charges against Zuma, as well as to pursue fraud charges against Zuma's allies
Schabir Shaik and
Tony Yengeni. Mbeki said that his remarks were malicious and libelous, and
Helen Zille, the leader of the opposition
Democratic Alliance, argued that the remarks showed that Heath was unsuitable for the SIU post because he "has involved himself in factional ANC politics." On 14 December 2011, two weeks after his appointment, Heath tendered his resignation from the SIU. He said in a statement: The events of the past two weeks have created the impression that I am unable to head the SIU independently. Correct or not, the initial media coverage of an interview in which I participated left the impression that I made unqualified statements of political events which may be unbecoming of the head of the SIU.Minister Radebe appointed
Nomgcobo Jiba to replace Heath in an acting capacity, though a permanent replacement was not made until Vas Soni was appointed in August 2013. == Personal life and death ==