‘Reeva must be smiling’

The ANCWL hailed the altering of Oscar Pistorius' culpable homicide conviction to murder as a victory for all women.

Bloemfontein – The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) on Thursday called on the courts to sentence “Blade runner” Oscar Pistorius to at least 20 years in jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The ANCWL, which has consistently been present during Pistorius trial and the State’s subsequent appeal of his culpable homicide conviction, welcomed Thursday’s altering the Paralympian’s culpable homicide conviction to murder, calling it a victory for all women in the country.

“We are very much overwhelmed. The women of South Africa, the women in the whole world today have won, said Mapaseke Nkoane, chairwoman of the ANCWL in Mangaung.

“I’m sure she must be smiling where she is and we said we will be the mouthpiece of her to make the noise that was not made when she was being shot with the first shot and today that noise has been heard, and we are saying to the justice system, continue doing the good job that you are doing.”

Mapaseka said the fight was not over, indicating they would continue lobbying for Pistorius to be handed a stiff sentence - preferably 20 years to life.

“We will continue to be at the court up until the final day when he is going to jail again,” Nkoane said.

“We’ll make sure we take him halfway to get to prison for the sake of Reeva Steenkamp.”

Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) said the ruling would go a long way towards giving hope to women who were victims of violence.

“We congratulate the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for its tireless pursuit of justice as mandated by the Constitution of the Republic,” said Mlondi Mkhize, ANCYL national spokesman.

“This indeed is a victory for justice and a victory for the criminal justice system in our country which has sustained attacks from all and sundry about its treatment of what is referred to as high profile cases.”

Mkhize said the court should not impose a sentence of less than 15 years.

“The ANCYL believes that a decisive sentence, will restore the confidence our people have in the legal system.”

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) said it believed justice had finally been done.

“This SCA judgement has provided much needed clarity on the right of the state to appeal, the application of the legal concept of dolus eventualis, the consideration of circumstantial evidence by a presiding officer, as well as the reliance on putative self-defence,” said ACDP MP Steve Swart.

Pistorius and his defence team now face another legal battle after a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal, in an unanimous judgment, (SCA) ordered that the North Gauteng High Court “consider an appropriate sentence afresh in the light of the comment in this judgment.”

The SCA decided against a retrial, saying: “…given the protracted nature of the trial that has already taken place, the issues that were involved, the time that has already elapsed and the unfairness that may result if witnesses have once again to testify, it would seem to me wholly impracticable and not in the public interest to follow that course.”

The appeal court found that trial court judge Thokozile Masipa had wrongfully applied the legal concept of dolus eventualis (a perpetrator having reasonably foreseen that his actions could cause death).

The higher court judges found fault with Masipa’s ruling that because, on Pistorius’s version, he did not know that it was Steenkamp and not an intruder in his bathroom, he could not have foreseen his actions would cause her death.

“In this regard, it is necessary to stress that although a perpetrator’s intention to kill must relate to the person killed, this does not mean that a perpetrator must know or appreciate the identity of the victim,” the ruling said.

In the damning judgement, Judge Eric Leach said he and his fellow judges did not accept the defence’s arguments which placed emphasis on the fact that Pistorius was physically disabled, was not wearing his prosthesis and thus vulnerable to “any aggression directed at him by an intruder”. The defence argued that this, combined with his “general anxiety disorder”, may well have led to him firing the fatal shots without thinking of the consequences.

“In my view this cannot be accepted. On his own version, when he (Pistorius) thought there was an intruder in the toilet, the accused armed himself with a heavy calibre firearm loaded with ammunition specifically designed for self-defence, screamed at the intruder to get out of his house, and proceeded forward to the bathroom in order to confront whoever might be there,” Leach said.

“He [Pistorius] is a person well-trained in the use of firearms and was holding his weapon at the ready in order to shoot. He paused at the entrance to the bathroom and when he became aware that there was a person in the toilet cubicle, he fired four shots through the door. And he never offered an acceptable explanation for having done so.”

The State’s arguments that the trial court had been wrong to dismiss circumstantial evidence that showed that Pistorius’s version of events was impossible was also upheld.

The SCA judges found Masipa had failed to properly consider the evidence presented by South African Police Service ballistics expert, Captain Chris Mangena, even though his testimony was found to be “particularly useful”.

Mangena was in charge of reconstructing the crime scene following Steenkamp’s murder.

“And it is also apparent from the reconstruction and the photographs, demonstrating with laser beams and steel rods the path each bullet had travelled, that all the shots fired through the door would almost inevitably have struck a person behind it,” the SCA found.

“There had effectively been nowhere for the deceased to hide.”

Steenkamp, a model, was shot dead on February 14, 2013. Pistorius was convicted and sentenced in 2014, and released less than year later on parole.

According to the Appeal court judges: “This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions: a young man overcomes huge physical disabilities to reach Olympic heights as an athlete; in doing so he becomes an international celebrity; he meets a young woman of great natural beauty and a successful model; romance blossoms; and then, ironically on Valentine’s Day, all is destroyed when he takes her life.”

African News Agency

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