No Fear No FAVOUR, No FAME.......... just the FACTS.........................
WHY did Oscar Pistorius not see that Reeva Steenkamp was not in bed when he reached for his firearm, State prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked yesterday.
22 February 2013 | ELAINE SWANEPOEL and SAPA
WHY did Oscar Pistorius not see that Reeva Steenkamp was not in bed when he reached for his firearm, State prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked yesterday.
22 February 2013 | ELAINE SWANEPOEL and SAPA
“There are only two people in the house and you want to protect her, but you don’t even look at her?” he asked during Pistorius’s bail application in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
Nel said it was not a coincidence that the people who gave statements after Steenkamp’s death said they had heard screams and arguments. He said it was also not disputed
that Pistorius had discharged a
gun at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg and “somebody else took the blame”.
Nel was referring to evidence given earlier this week by now former investigating officer Hilton Botha.
Botha testified that earlier this year Pistorius had fired off a shot from a friend’s pistol at the restaurant. Knowing it would cause a media frenzy, he convinced his friend to take the blame for the incident.
“That is the real person we are dealing with,” said Nel. “The fact that he got someone else to take the blame is the main issue here. It is clear Pistorius is not willing to take responsibility for his actions.
“Even in his affidavit he says he did nothing wrong. This unwillingness to take responsibility for his deeds makes him a flight risk. We say we are astounded by the total lack of seriousness.”
Nel also referred to Botha’s testimony about an incident at the Kyalami race track earlier this year, during which Pistorius had allegedly got into a fight with a man and told him that he would ‘f*** him up’. When the man had laid charges against Pistorius, the athlete allegedly phoned him and threatened to ‘break his legs’.
He said there were no exceptional circumstances for magistrate Desmond Nair to grant Pistorius bail, adding that Pistorius had not offered to give up his passport, but said he would if it were a condition of bail. “He never said to this court: ‘I’m not going anywhere’.”
Nel said Pistorius’s version of events was “improbable”. Even in his version, there had been no imminent danger in the bathroom.
Pistorius had said there had been threats on his life, but he had never opened a case with the police.
“He was keen to arm himself and get to the intruder; his action is indicative of a man ready to arm himself, and ready to kill,” said Nel. He added that one could not create a danger and then act in self-defence. It was “improbable” that Pistorius had felt vulnerable, but still headed for the bathroom door.
“It is our respectful submission that he fired four shots, not one shot. The only reason you fire four shots is to kill,” said Nel. “At the least there will be culpable homicide.”
He asked why two cellphones and a firearm had been found in the bathroom.
When questioned by Nair about the possibility that Pistorius had orchestrated the scene to his benefit, Nel said he did not rule this out.
Nel said it was not a coincidence that the people who gave statements after Steenkamp’s death said they had heard screams and arguments. He said it was also not disputed
that Pistorius had discharged a
gun at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg and “somebody else took the blame”.
Nel was referring to evidence given earlier this week by now former investigating officer Hilton Botha.
Botha testified that earlier this year Pistorius had fired off a shot from a friend’s pistol at the restaurant. Knowing it would cause a media frenzy, he convinced his friend to take the blame for the incident.
“That is the real person we are dealing with,” said Nel. “The fact that he got someone else to take the blame is the main issue here. It is clear Pistorius is not willing to take responsibility for his actions.
“Even in his affidavit he says he did nothing wrong. This unwillingness to take responsibility for his deeds makes him a flight risk. We say we are astounded by the total lack of seriousness.”
Nel also referred to Botha’s testimony about an incident at the Kyalami race track earlier this year, during which Pistorius had allegedly got into a fight with a man and told him that he would ‘f*** him up’. When the man had laid charges against Pistorius, the athlete allegedly phoned him and threatened to ‘break his legs’.
He said there were no exceptional circumstances for magistrate Desmond Nair to grant Pistorius bail, adding that Pistorius had not offered to give up his passport, but said he would if it were a condition of bail. “He never said to this court: ‘I’m not going anywhere’.”
Nel said Pistorius’s version of events was “improbable”. Even in his version, there had been no imminent danger in the bathroom.
Pistorius had said there had been threats on his life, but he had never opened a case with the police.
“He was keen to arm himself and get to the intruder; his action is indicative of a man ready to arm himself, and ready to kill,” said Nel. He added that one could not create a danger and then act in self-defence. It was “improbable” that Pistorius had felt vulnerable, but still headed for the bathroom door.
“It is our respectful submission that he fired four shots, not one shot. The only reason you fire four shots is to kill,” said Nel. “At the least there will be culpable homicide.”
He asked why two cellphones and a firearm had been found in the bathroom.
When questioned by Nair about the possibility that Pistorius had orchestrated the scene to his benefit, Nel said he did not rule this out.
The application was postponed to today for further argument.
THE CITIZEN
Pistorius: South Africa bears and breeds these men
The truth about South Africa's peaceful transition and the everyday of democracy is as messy as the contested events of February 14.
Oscar Pistorius is emblematic of South Africa. The story of a disfigured man rising above his own unfortunate history to shine heroically is in synch with the mythology of a country disfigured by apartheid; a country that rose above this terrible past, for a flickering second, to become an international symbol of humanity's triumph over adversity and what is most evil in man.
However, the truth about South Africa's peaceful transition and the everyday of democracy is as messy as the contested events of February 14, when Pistorius is alleged to have killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
But for all the parallels between the double amputee and the country he represented so heroically on the running tracks of the Paralympic and Olympic Games there is now a fracture. In Pistorius's defence of his shooting of Steenkamp – whom in his affidavit he stated he mistook for a burglar – the man dubbed the Blade Runner has articulated, to the point of triteness, the most popularly espoused white middle-class South African paranoia.
Pistorius talked of being "acutely aware" of crime. Of the fear of "violent crime being committed by intruders" in his home – a post-apartheid narrative, consistently told by white South Africans. Yet studies have generally shown that black South Africans are most often the victims of fatal violent crime.
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The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's 2008 Streets of Pain, Streets of Sorrow report on violence was based on six policing areas with high murder rates over a five-year period. It found that more than 90% of the murder victims were black Africans in all of these areas, except one, where the percentage of black Africans killed was lower (51%), but still the leader, among race groups.
Pistorius's father, Henke, reflected this almost irrational white obsession with violent crime in a recent interview with the British Telegraph newspaper. Explaining his son's alleged action on the morning of February 14, he said: "When you wake up in the middle of the night – and crime is so endemic in South Africa – what do you do if somebody is in the house? Do you think it's one of your family? Of course you don't."
In defending his actions on Valentine's Day, Pistorius has seemingly put post-apartheid South Africa in the dock for its perceived failures, especially around crime levels.
South Africa's construction of masculinity
His apparent penchant for guns has, through the details in his affidavits, also ostensibly demonstrated the impulses of some whites in South Africa since 1652: to use firearms to protect their possessions and their womenfolk against the black natives.
His apparent penchant for guns has, through the details in his affidavits, also ostensibly demonstrated the impulses of some whites in South Africa since 1652: to use firearms to protect their possessions and their womenfolk against the black natives.
The male as hunter, explorer, protector of women and killer of natives is intertwined in South Africa's construction of masculinity. So is the use of guns. It includes the apartheid militarisation of white youth who had cadet lessons at school where they were taught to march and, in some cases, shoot firearms.
Pistorius exhibits other aspects that are drawn out in the South African Medical Research Council's 2011 I Had a Hard Life report, which explored childhood adversity in the shaping of masculinity among men who killed an intimate partner in South Africa. They include hardships, such as his disability after both his legs were amputated at 11 months, the traumatic loss of a parent (his mother at the age of 15) and an absentee father. The last is rife in South Africa owing to divorce, disinterest or a migrant labour system that ensures sons grow up far from male father figures.
Pistorius told the British Guardian newspaper in a 2011 interview that his father "wasn't around much when we grew up. I saw him seldom – and it's the same now. He lives and works very far from me, on a dolomite mine."
The 26-year-old athlete described his father to the Guardian as "a cool guy but he's more of a mate. He's not much of a parent. It's just life."
Pistorius and his father seem to share a fascination with guns. According to a recent Beeld report, Henke also kept several guns and once, infamously, shot himself in the testicles while cleaning one of them.
Paranoia, gun obsession and a lack of male role models are just some of the factors that appear to coalesce in Pistorius. These factors are also burnished in the institutions where junior sportspeople are made – their schools. In this case, the school is Pretoria Boys High, where patriarchy and misogyny seem to be entrenched through "traditions", rituals and institutional DNA.
Bonding and aggression
Sports like rugby – which academics such as Robert Morrell suggest was used after events such as the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879, which the British lost, to rebuild a shattered white masculinity – feature prominently in the masculine tribal pride at these schools. The focus is on brotherly bonding and aggression.
Sports like rugby – which academics such as Robert Morrell suggest was used after events such as the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879, which the British lost, to rebuild a shattered white masculinity – feature prominently in the masculine tribal pride at these schools. The focus is on brotherly bonding and aggression.
The bubble that develops around internationally successful sports stars also creates a sense of dislocation from the real world and of impunity for whatever actions they may perpetrate .
During the state's questioning of detective Hilton Botha at the Pretoria Magistrate's Court at Pistorius's bail application hearing on February 20, prosecutor Gerrie Nel recalled an incident at a Johannesburg restaurant in January when Pistorius had allegedly accidently set off a firearm.
According to Botha, the athlete had "asked [the owner of the firearm] to take the rap for him and that person did".
Nel continued along that line of questioning, asking Botha: "He allowed somebody else to take the blame?"
"Correct," responded Botha.
'Fuck up'
Pistorius's legal team later suggested that the gun had gone off when it was being passed to Pistorius under the table. *
Pistorius's legal team later suggested that the gun had gone off when it was being passed to Pistorius under the table. *
In another incident, when Pistorius had threatened to "fuck up" someone over a woman and it eventually appeared to be heading towards a civil action claim, Pistorius's friend Justin Divaris had allegedly intervened and had tried to make the matter disappear.
According to Botha, Divaris had stated that if the incident was made public, it would effect a "McLaren [car] sponsorship coming through" for Pistorius.
"Then he got away with it?" Nel asked Botha.
"Then he got away with it," confirmed Botha.
All this is not to say that Pistorius is guilty or innocent of the premeditated murder of Steenkamp. Just that he is very much a male born and bred of this country – a South Africa that is contradictory, complex and, yes, violent.
MAIL & GUARDIAN
COMMENTS BY SONNY
Murder He Wrote - Gerrie Nel.
As always, Gerrie is on a fishing expedition for the Main Trial.
He must bear in mind - ....."Eagles do not catch Flies"....... They leave them for the SPIDERS!
Let's hope we get to the end of this pathetic Bail Application today - Friday 22 February 2013.
Then he can really go after his main target... The Murderer!
* BEFORE THE OWNER OF THIS "GUN" HANDED THE WEAPON TO PISTORIUS HE SHOULD HAVE MADE THE "GUN" SAFE? PEOPLE DON'T PLAY WITH FIRE ARMS UNDER TABLES - IDIOTS DO!!
NEL should have subjected himself to 'Trauma Councilling after his arrest by the SAPS.
There is a strong possibility that he is suffering from PTSD.
The one is a psychotic disorder!
NO WONDER SA SOCIETY IS SO FUCKED UP!
It's not the crime but the people!
Oh, its not just the white people of SA who have been Gun-Crazy since 1652 - Look at the present President of SA - He has been 'MACHINE GUN CRAZY' even since he was placed in office by the ANC.
He even displays his paranoia in public!
Nobody must judge 'white men' as the aggressor!
They normally are the victims or protectors!
THE QUEEN/KING OF ENGLAND SENT THE "WHITE MAN TO KILL OTHER WHITE MEN IN SOUTH AFRICA!"
They had no quarrel with the black man at that stage.
QUEEN VICTORIA SHOULD BE ON TRIAL HERE!
CHECK CRIME STATISTIC FOR DETAILS!
IN THE USA IT IS A GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!!!!!
CHECK THEIR SECOND AMENDMENT OF THEIR CONSTITUTION!
He even sings in public!, MG)
Darkness visible in JZ's kingdom by the sea
ReplyDeleteby Niren Tolsi
With the African National Congress beset by factionalism, is the province still 100% Jacob Zuma? Niren Tolsi investigates.
"Wherever I go I carry a gun these days," a longtime ANC member from the eThekwini region in KwaZulu-Natal said, "not because I am afraid of thugs or political opposition, but because I am afraid of my own."
Getting back to the Oscar Pistorius case....
ReplyDeleteThe State, if the prosecutor was not so arrogant, would have discovered "Motive" if they had examined the 5th phone found in the House of Tragedy!
Hilton Botha is not the only one to blame......
SUCCESS IN THE FUTURE OSCAR PISTORIUS.....
Barry Roux: The real star in Oscar Pistorius case
ReplyDelete23 FEB 2013 07:27 - SAPA-AFP
Legal eagle Barry Roux who is defending Oscar Pistorius in his murder charge has emerged as the star of the world headline grabbing case.
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The veteran lawyer, right from the onset of the hearing, exposed irregularities in the state's case, resulting in the athlete being granted bail on Friday.
With his sharp line of questioning, the respected criminal lawyer who has handled a string of high-profile cases, appeared to have changed the course of the case.
He picked apart the state's case that Pistorius planned the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.
Under his intense cross examination, a tardy investigating officer who attended to the murder scene was reduced to a bumbling amateur, as he struggled to provide sufficient forensic evidence on the circumstances of the shooting.
In a case that has captured the world's attention, Roux forced the investigator, Hilton Botha, to concede that police had missed crucial forensic evidence on the scene, compromising the case.
Early victory
Botha had to admit that the evidence provided by Pistorius was consistent with the crime scene, dealing a blow to the state's case – in what was seen as an early victory for the defence team.
Steenkamp was shot three times through the bathroom door early on February 14, with wounds to her head, elbow and hip, in what Pistorius has described as a "horrible accident".
The veteran lawyer, also went on to cast doubt on key witnesses at the bail hearing, including a neighbour who claims to have heard "non-stop fighting" from Pistorius' house before the shooting.
Spectators are adamant that Roux's legal prowess has weakened the state's case that the murder was premeditated.
With 31 years' experience in the legal fraternity, Roux, a Senior Counsel, who is currently based in Pretoria was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar in 1982.
He has taken on some of the most controversial cases in South Africa, including the long running tax evasion trial of Dave King, a Glasgow-born businessman.
'Efficient and astute'
In the 1990s he defended apartheid era general Lothar Neethling, who sued a newspaper over claims that he supplied poison used against anti-apartheid activists.
Cape Town-based lawyer William Booth praised Roux for the "efficient and astute manner" in which he handled the Pistorius bail hearing.
His imposing build and high-pitched voice make him a commanding figure in court, as he pounces on his opponents, ruthlessly exposing their flaws and painting them as amateurs.
Magistrate Desmond Nair had to occasionally intervene on behalf of hapless witnesses as they came under pressure from Roux's barrage of questioning.
The "Blade Runner" murder trial has attracted huge international interest and as it is expected to drag for months or even years, Roux will have further opportunities to showcase his skills.
Outside court, when asked about the challenges of working on the case, Roux jokingly said: "There's a call I received last week. Had I known I would not have taken it." – Sapa-AFP