Judging from the reaction of a shocked South Africa, it does appear the verdict in the case of the famous “Blade Runner”, Oscar Pistorius, is fundamentally flawed. The athlete has been adjudged innocent of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but held guilty of culpable homicide. The facts do not seem to support the leniency — there were two people in a room of whom one had gone to the toilet cubicle while the other shot through the thin door four hollow-tipped bullets that opened and mushroomed on impact, killing Reeva instantly. An imagined intruder was said to have triggered the firing.
Given the racial baggage the rainbow nation carries, the verdict — even one given by a black judge in Thokozile Masipa — is going to tear South Africa asunder. Those who don’t agree with the verdict make the comparisons to the case of the black rapper Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye, who crashed his car into a group of boys while drag racing through Soweto and got 20 years for murder while the white Paralympic athlete, who defied the odds to compete in the open Olympics, is convicted of the lesser crime of manslaughter.
There is something clearly wrong in legal compassion for a person with grave firearms misuse issues. The angst of a people will certainly cry out “racial discrimination”. Sentencing is awaited, but, given the verdict, it is being predicted that a light five years in prison may be all that Oscar, a troubled celebrity, may get behind bars. The last has not been heard of this most sensational murder trial.
