Ben Chite couldn't have chosen a more appealing restaurant - Signature, in Johannesburg's new Morningside Shopping Centre. Purely by chance, it's the one Justice Malala raves about on the preceding page.
Chite admits, mock-shamefacedly, that he should spend less time here, as we enter the dining area, which overlooks a rugby field.
Ben Chite
Rugby is a passion of Chite's, but that's not what he is known for. Chite and his legal team may have saved ArcelorMittal multimillions - R691,8m to be exact - in one of the biggest anti competitive fines that has been imposed in SA. (Though the company won its appeal against the record fine, the case is still unresolved after it was sent back to a tribunal.) The penalty would have equated to about 5,5% of the 2003 flat-steel sales income of ArcelorMittal's SA unit alone.Armed with a BProc degree, Chite completed articles with Adams & Adams and then joined Webber Wentzel Bowens. Later he made a contribution to Nedbank's corporate team as a legal adviser. But while working on a small mining interest of his own he was approached by ArcelorMittal to head its legal team, reporting directly to CEO Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita.
"I deal with anything that has a legal implication for the company," Chite says. "You can be sure a 10 pm call from the CEO would not be to find out if I am doing okay," he jokes.
Kenyan-born, Chite has made his mark by being appointed the head of the legal department of Africa's biggest steel maker at the age of 32.
Competition is something he is accustomed to. His parents instilled a competitive spirit in all three of their children.
"We were taught nothing was impossible," says Chite. "It taught me perseverance, focus and self-discipline. The sense that we were able to achieve things was drilled into us."
Chite hit the ground running upon his appointment in March last year. This was at the height of the drama over the hefty fine being imposed on the steel giant for collusive and excessive pricing. "It is important to note that though the fine was imposed, it was contested."
Earlier this year, the court reversed the fine. "The decision against us was made prior to my joining. The appeal was done on my watch." So it's fair to say Chite's 100% track record of success is intact.
The steel maker, according to another investigation conducted by the competition authority, could be fined 10% of its annual revenue and exports for fixing prices with other companies. This, coupled with the Kumba iron ore arbitration and its drive for better corporate social investment, makes ArcelorMittal a revolving door for potential litigation.
The former parastatal, which posted revenue of R39,9bn this past financial year-end, also has a growing presence in other parts of Africa. But it recently had to shut down its Senegalese interests.
"I play a caretaker role for our Mozambique interests," says Chite.
So his legal duties are not confined to dealing with the competition commission and SA exclusively. "But Mozambican laws are in Portuguese, so I often have to defer to those who understand them," he says.
Chite is no stranger to challenges outside the office and courtroom. His world came to a standstill when his mother was murdered on November 30 1989. "Life, as I knew it, ended in a split second."
He was only 13 years old. He lost 10 kg in 10 days through a combination of intense grief and malaria, and, in his words, "stopped caring. I couldn't foresee any kind of future, and became suicidal. I stopped caring about academics."
He also stopped swimming, despite having made it into the Kenyan national swimming team. "I couldn't continue. I associated swimming with my mother."
But he pulled through, not least because of what she he had taught him.
Chite, the father of two, is now looking forward to other challenges, including the birth of a daughter soon.
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At Blair Athol Golf Estate, if not spending time at home with his wife and two children