by Disgraced South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been granted parole and will be released from prison on January 5.
The amputee ‘blade runner’, who won six Paralympic gold medals and reached the semi-finals of the 200m sprint at the London 2012 Olympics, has been told he can walk free after serving nine years for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp . , in 2013.
The decision is a new chapter in a case that continues to rouse South Africa and the world beyond, and spawned one of the trials of the century.
But it is another painful blow for the family of the woman he killed, who believe he never told the truth about the night he shot their daughter. “Only Oscar knows the truth,” her father, Barry Steenkamp, said earlier this year in his last interview before the 80-year-old died in September. “If he had told the truth in the beginning, it would have been much better. People would forgive him faster”.
Pistorius was on top of the world when he fired four shots through a bathroom door in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, killing Steenkamp, who was inside.
The previous year he had competed in London on his custom carbon fiber prostheses against the world’s most talented athletes. The triumph of the boy who had two legs amputated below the knee as a child due to a congenital condition was an inspiring example of humanity’s ability to overcome disability.
In South Africa, a country that includes united heroes, he was an idol.
Being his favorite son, it is not surprising that he was soon dating one of the country’s favorite daughters, Reeva Steenkamp, a TV personality and anti-bullying campaigner.
The gilded life of red carpet events ended just three months into their relationship, when he opened fire in his Pretoria home with his 9mm pistol.
Prosecutors alleged that Steenkamp, who was 29 years old at the time, was killed while hiding in the toilet after a heated argument.
Pistorius, the only witness, claimed that it was a terrible accident: he did not know that his girlfriend had gone to the toilet and that he had mistaken her for a dangerous intruder behind the door.
The trial moved to South Africa. It was the first in the country to be televised and daily events began at prime time.
“People were angry with Oscar,” recalls David O’Sullivan, a prominent journalist who hosted a nightly television panel of legal duties. “It was supposed to fly our flag, and none of that was racist: black people and white people said the same thing. They also felt betrayed by Oscar because murder is so widespread in South Africa.”
As the hearing progressed, the South Africans discussed each revelation and each legal fine.
“When me and the lawyers went for a drink, people stopped them for autographs and selfies,” says O’Sullivan.
The high-profile case also showed that the country’s homicide epidemic, and particularly its high levels of violence against women, did not affect townships alone, says Lisa Vetten, of the Gender Violence and Urban Transformation Project at the University of Johannesburg.
“People started to take an interest and found out that this wasn’t just happening in poor black communities,” she says. “Six women are murdered every day in South Africa.”
After months of testimony, Judge Thokozile Masipa, one of the country’s first black female judges, appeared to believe Pistorius’ account and convicted him of culpable homicide, a charge comparable to murder.
But her decision was then overturned by the supreme court, which found that even if Pistorius believed he was shooting an intruder, he must have reasonably expected the person behind the door to die. Therefore, he was guilty of murder under the principle of dolus eventualis, a vague legal term, which quickly entered the South African vocabulary.
As Chris Greenland, a retired judge who was one of the many who split the case on nightly television, explains: “If somebody shoots birds in your garden, for example, knowing that there’s a school playground in the background, then it is possible. to insist that the shooter predicted that he/she might also kill a child.”
When Judge Masipa gave Pistorius six years, the supreme court intervened again, calling the term “shockingly lenient”. Pistorius was finally jailed in November 2017 for 13 years and five months, taking into account time already served.
Pistorius has not been pictured since. Unconfirmed reports from his time inside Atteridgeville prison suggest he has grown a beard, put on weight and quit smoking, making him unrecognizable from the elite athlete he was there at one time.
Earlier this year the constitutional court ruled that the authorities had miscalculated when he should be eligible for parole. The confusion over when his sentence started meant he should have been eligible several months earlier.
Before he died, Barry Steenkamp declared that he had no objection to the authorities granting parole, although he admitted that his mind might change as the date approached. He met Pistorius in prison as part of a restorative justice program, but his wife, June, refused, saying she was afraid of what he would do if she confronted him.
She did not attend today’s parole hearing either. Instead, June Steenkamp wrote a letter to be read at the meeting, detailing the terrible personal consequences of Pistorius’ crime and saying she did not believe the former athlete was rehabilitated.
“Rehabilitation requires a person to face honestly, the full truth of his crime and its consequences. No one can claim to be repentant if they cannot fully face the truth,” she said.
Despite this, officials ruled that Pistorius could be released. As part of his parole, which runs until December 5, 2029, he will be prohibited from leaving his Pretoria area without permission, and will have to attend an anger management program and do community service.
Family sources told the Telegraph that Pistorius would live with his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, a wealthy property developer, at his Waterkloof mansion in Pretoria. Now aged 37, however, Pistorius’ career as an athlete is over. But he may still be able to find employment in coaching, or elsewhere in the sports industry, predict sources close to the situation. He can also study.
If he cannot overcome his reputation in his home country, after the end of parole Pistorius may follow the example of many South Africans and choose to emigrate. He has two brothers who are believed to be overseas, including a sister, Aimee, who is reported to be living in London.
However, if Pistorius is thinking about his future today, June Steenkamp, now a widow and in difficult financial circumstances, is left with the past and her daughter’s legacy.
Originally from Blackburn in Lancashire, she launched a foundation in Reeva’s name to raise awareness of violence against women and children. Speaking earlier this year on the 10th anniversary of her daughter’s death, she admitted that every day was hard; she was still grieving.
The 78-year-old then said: “We love her so much and miss her so much. A part of our life is gone, but we will see her one day and that is what we look forward to.”
