More than a decade has passed since South African Paralympian, Oscar Pistorius, known as ‘blade runner’, shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a locked bathroom door. Now out on parole, he is at home, as experts and social media weigh in.



Oscar Pistorius, once hailed as a trailblazing Paralympian, has been released on parole after nearly nine years behind bars in South Africa. His release, confirmed by the country’s prison authorities, marks the end of a journey that has for years gripped the attention of audiences worldwide.



“He was admitted into the system of Community Corrections and is now at home,” concluded the statement from South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services today.



Pistorius, an acclaimed sprinter and gold medal-winning athlete, was convicted of shooting his then-girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door of their Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day in 2013. The subsequent case became widely publicized both locally and internationally due to both Pistorius&#8217; and Steenkamp&#8217;s prominent social profiles, as well as the horrific end to what had appeared to be an iconic celebrity relationship.



The shooting of Steenkamp not only ended a life but also marked the start of a convoluted legal saga. Initially convicted of culpable homicide, Pistorius&#8217; sentence was later ruled murder after a series of appeals and retrials, highlighting the complexities and nuances of the judicial process.



The relentless media scrutiny brought unprecedented attention to South African legal proceedings, influencing public opinion and raising critical questions about celebrity culture, media ethics, and the justice system&#8217;s handling of domestic violence cases.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="595" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-162069565.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60887" style="width:638px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-162069565.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-162069565-300x174.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-162069565-768x446.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Outside the Pretoria High Court on March 4, 2014, in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Herman Verwey/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


“He has served more than 50% of his sentence. And the parole, or rather the Correctional Services Act and the regulations make provision for parole… He is being very carefully monitored, and the conditions are there… The parole board has set stringent checks on him,” comments William Booth, a defence counsel in South Africa specializing in criminal law, to FORBES AFRICA.



The conditions of Pistorius&#8217; parole, as outlined by South African correctional services, underscore a set of requirements. His life, once marked by the freedom of the running track, is now confined to the boundaries of his uncle&#8217;s residence in the upmarket suburb of Waterkloof, Pretoria. Additionally, his rehabilitation includes therapy for anger management and programs addressing gender-based violence, a nod to the underlying issues his case has brought to the fore as well as stern adherences to a daily routine and a ban on alcohol consumption.



The most significant condition to his release, which is quite uncommon to parole cases, is his strict adherence to a media blackout.



“I think the reason for that is because the case has been dealt with worldwide in the media on all platforms,” Booth explains. “They feel that he should not give interviews, be paid for those, write articles or have articles written or even, let&#8217;s say write a book and get paid for that. So I think that is the feeling in this instance. And in many cases, when people are released on parole, there&#8217;s never any fear of the person going to speak to the media, because it&#8217;s not a case that the public have any particular interest in. But here, certainly the world and the public internationally, and, of course, nationally, have a very specific interest in this matter.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-476628927.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60886" style="width:702px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-476628927.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-476628927-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-476628927-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"> (Photo by Herman Verwey/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Even with these conditions in place, activists hold strong views about granting parole to a person convicted of murder in South Africa, a country with one of the highest femicide rates in the world.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="636" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-161658209.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60889" style="width:304px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-161658209.jpg 636w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-161658209-186x300.jpg 186w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Reeva Steenkamp. (Photo by Mike Holmes/The Herald/Gallo Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


“Thirteen years and five months was a very lenient sentence in the first place, but that he got out after serving only [over] eight years in prison just reflects the legal system&#8217;s inability to address femicide as a pandemic,” says Sabrina Walter, Chairperson of Women For Change, a non-profit organization advocating against Gender Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa.



“I still maintain that Oscar Pistorius should have served the full sentence for the brutal murder of Reeva. Given the severity of the crime, I feel that justice has not been adequately served. My thoughts are with June today and everyone who dearly loved Reeva.”



The most resonant voice in the aftermath of Pistorius&#8217; release is that of June, mother of the late Steenkamp, issued in a statement early this morning. While acknowledging the inevitability of Pistorius’ parole, she stated that she and her “dear late husband Barry” have never been able to come to terms with Reeva&#8217;s death, or the way she died.



“Has there been justice for Reeva? Has Oscar served enough time?” Steenkamp said in her statement on Friday. “There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back. We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence. With the release of Oscar Pistorius on parole, my only desire is that I will be allowed to live my last years in peace with my focus remaining on the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, to continue Reeva&#8217;s legacy.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="682" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-478398457.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60885" style="width:520px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-478398457.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-478398457-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-478398457-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Oscar Pistorius at the Pretoria High Court on March 13, 2014, in Pretoria, South Africa.(Photo by Alet Pretorius/Foto24/Gallo Images &#8211; Pool /Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


The Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, established in her honor, continues to address issues of domestic violence and support women in need, reflecting her commitment to social change.



As Pistorius begins his life under the conditions of parole, the case leaves a lasting imprint on public discourse surrounding the criminal justice system, the treatment of high-profile figures within it, and the ongoing challenges in addressing domestic violence.

Oscar Pistorius Is Convicted Of Culpable Homicide Of Girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

Paralympian Oscar Pistorius Granted Parole After Nearly Nine Years In South Africa Prison; Reeva Steenkamp’s Legacy Lives On

It may have turned many a stomach, but it was all in a day’s work for a rookie profiler. Not many can say they have seen a woman smashed with a hammer, chopped with an axe, the blood drained, before being dumped along the Krugersdorp highway, near Johannesburg, in South Africa.
“This was my first crime scene. There were a lot of cars passing on the highway, a lot of policeman and crime scene photographers looking over the body. The scene wasn’t too bloody because most of the blood had been drained in the bath and because the body was kept there, it was preserved a bit,” recalls Gérard Labuschagne.
Labuschagne was 29 years old at the time and just weeks in the job.
“I felt like I was out of my league. I had to use my experience and what I had learned to help find him,” he says.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5139" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Gerard-113-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
And they did.
“When he was caught, at the trial, he said he would have done it again. He contacted and met with estate agents first, claiming he wanted to buy a home… This was the second interior decorator he had invited to his home. We often see this type of behavior in serial killers because they slowly move towards what they want to do by trial run. Contacting estate agents satisfied him for whatever need, perhaps to gain confidence to move forward to the next step,” says Labuschagne.
For 14 years, this was his life, catching killers and locking them up. He investigated over 110 serial killers, over 200 serial rapists, in thousands of cases, trained the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI and became head of the South African Police Services’ (SAPS) specialized Investigative Psychology Section. One of his big cases – the Oscar Pistorius trial.
“I was called to the scene after it happened. Oscar had no right to shoot the gun. There are other things he could have done… After hearing all the evidence, I don’t know whether he intended to kill her specifically. There are things that point towards it but there are also things that point against it. Unfortunately, only he will know.”
Promotions in the job meant management roles which he isn’t passionate about.
“I like working on cases and being on the field. I felt that the organization can’t change because of me. I didn’t see myself doing that for another 17 years so I had to retire,” says Labuschagne.
For a year and a half, he worked towards what he thought was a breakthrough for business.
“I felt our work in the police was very reactive, someone would have been killed or someone would have been raped by the time we are called in. Even if you catch the guy, you can’t bring back the person that has been murdered. We could bring justice and maybe prevent the person from committing the same crimes again, because most of these guys repeat offend, but it’s not enough,” says Labuschagne.
While in the police he noticed more and more businesses were asking them to help assess threats. This was his chance. Labuschagne went into the world of entrepreneurship, founding L&amp;S Threat Management. His life took a turn.
L&amp;S Threat Management focuses on workplace violence, what Labuschagne calls a ticking time bomb.
“We live in a society characterized by violence and conflict. Many of our lives have been touched by threatening behavior and violent crime, and increasingly so in a work environment. We do training for, usually, security people to give them the skills to assess whatever potential threat they have and how to manage it to make sure that the threat isn’t carried out. We also train people on what work place violence is and what concerning things one needs to escalate, concerning warning signs, and consult on cases,” he says.
Their main focus is assessing and managing potential threats of violence in the workplace, including threats by outsiders towards employees, threats between employees, and anonymous threats towards employees because, according to Labuschagne, companies should protect its employees.
“We always think in lines of hard hats and not about safety in terms of violence towards or by your staff in the workplace. If it is part of your job to get threats, it is an onus on the employer to assess if you need a bodyguard or not, how many you need and when. But how does the employer do that if they don’t know how to do threat assessment,” he says.
Labuschagne knows it all inside out.
“I have had death threats which were not made directly to me but were made to third parties, which are actually more concerning. We always say if someone threatens you and says they are going to kill you and put the phone down, there is probably nothing much to worry about, if there are no other behaviors,  because if he is going to kill you, why is he going to tell you. But, in this instance, a guy killed his girlfriend and his father was telling people that he is going to kill me,” he says.
As good as an idea is, convincing companies to fork out money for these services is hard.
“The issue is convincing people to pay for something they have never paid for before. When we start explaining what we do and give an example, they understand there is a need for this service because in most cases they can relate.”
For the man who helped crack the Oscar Pistorius case, it’s all in a day’s work.

The man who helped crack  the Oscar Pistorius case

In October 2015, Oscar Pistorius, the South African double amputee Olympian runner sentenced to five years’ jail for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013, was released for correctional supervision.
He spent 10 months behind bars, and will now be under house arrest.
The world’s media gathered outside Pistorius’ uncle’s home in Waterkloof, near Pretoria, South Africa, for a glimpse of the athlete, but the family instead sent out spokeswoman and former journalist Anneliese Burgess, who said:  “He is simply entering the next phase of his sentence now. He will serve this under strict conditions that govern correctional supervision.”
Pistorius’ prosecutors have now appealed to the Supreme Court to scale up his sentence from culpable homicide to murder.
Karin van Eck, a lawyer at Clarke &amp; Van Eck Attorneys in Pretoria, says the situation could change.
<div id="attachment_30942" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30942" class="size-medium wp-image-30942" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8117606-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8117606-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8117606-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8117606-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8117606-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8117606.jpg 1023w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />June Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp&#8217;s mother.</div>
“If the state is successful in their appeal, then that would mean that he’s found guilty of murder and that would influence the sentencing and he doesn’t qualify for correctional supervision,” says van Eck.
The courtroom dramas that sent the athlete to prison in 2014 had been watched by the world. People wondered what was going to happen to him; but what about Reeva?
Thousands expressed outrage over Pistorius being the focal point of the trial, prompting #HerNameWasReevaSteenkamp to trend in defiance.
Reeva’s mother June Steenkamp was the face of the family throughout the trial but broke her silence for her book Reeva: A Mother’s Story, released in 2014.
In addition, June has now launched a foundation to help women and children who are victims of domestic abuse as her way of keeping her daughter’s legacy alive.
In October 2015, dressed in a black jacket, June had addressed students at her daughter’s old school in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, saying: “I will now carry on where she left off”. She read out excerpts of the speech her daughter was going to make to students the day she died.
In the televized address, she also said: “I have got no feelings of revenge. I don’t want to hurt [Pistorius]. He is already a disabled person. I did not want him to be thrown into jail and suffering because I don’t wish suffering on anyone and that’s not going to bring Reeva back.”
Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi, project manager at Wits Justice Project, a program of the journalism department at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, reckons the wheels of justice turn slowly, and the case is not over, yet.
“What we want to see, in order to have a fair and just system, is the same amount of attention being paid, as has been paid to Oscar’s case, as to the myriad of cases in the system which are the cause of miscarriages of justice for victims, families, the accused and their families too.”
The jury is still out.

ED_0020953

But What About Reeva?

Oscar Pistorius, the South African Paralympic running champion and global icon, became an incarcerated man on a balmy day in late October. Long before the presiding judge, Thokozile Masipa, handed down her sentence, crowds formed in the jacaranda-lined street outside Pretoria’s North Gauteng High Court.
As Judge Masipa’s voice wafted to the street from live TV feeds outside the court, she reminded everyone that ‘sentencing is about achieving the right balance’. With these words, discontent grew. Many feared that they were not going to get their pound of flesh.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3306" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_7375-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
Then the verdict: Pistorius was handed a three-year suspended sentence for discharging a firearm in a restaurant concurrently with a five-year custodial sentence for manslaughter. Legal experts claim that he must serve at least a sixth of his sentence to be eligible for parole. This means he could spend just 10 months behind bars followed by correctional supervision in the form of house arrest.
Golden Miles Bhudu, an activist from the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights, was livid as the sentence was announced. He had been put behind bars, he says, for six years for a furniture warehouse robbery in the late 1980s. He explained the sentence to a pair of French tourists who looked confused.
“It is the first time in all these years for culpable homicide you get correctional supervision&#8230; he’s a rich man!”
Cries of injustice came in a score of tongues outside the courthouse. A placard lent silent support to Bhudu, “Are certain offenders more equal than others in the eyes of the law?”
Nathaniel Joy, a Ghanaian on his lunch break, chimed in.
“He’s a super-rich person and even the victim is from a poor part [of the country]. I can see now its politics!”
The South African justice system also came under fire.
“I think it’s weak, it can be manipulated with money,” says the young man as his friend nods in agreement.
Not everyone was of the same mind. Simphiwe Rabede, a government worker from Pretoria, thought that justice was done.
“I think it was a fair judgement after all the deliberation and the arguments presented in court, despite the public perception, it was a fair judgement.”
Sitting nearby, a lawyer on another matter with long blonde hair, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed.
“I think Judge Masipa gave a fair sentence in the eyes of the law,” she says.
A little over an hour after the sentence was passed, Arnold Pistorius, the uncle representing the family, spoke.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3307" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_7390-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“The court has handed down its judgement and we accept this judgement,” he told an army of journalists outside the High Court Chambers. He appealed to the public to do the same.
Minutes before, an armored police van battled through a crowd of activists, onlookers and journalists as it made its way to the nearby Kgosi Mampuru II prison where Pistorius is serving his custodial sentence for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
After a month of speculation, prosecutors announced that they will appeal Judge Masipa’s decision, claiming that the sentence was ‘shockingly light’.

21/10/14:  The Day Oscar Went to Prison

On the second day of the trial, set to last three weeks, the heavy and cold rain over Pretoria’s Gauteng North High Court, didn’t stop the army of journalists from tussling for a glimpse of the accused outside the court.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2628" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3498-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
The 27-year-old Paralympic athlete was charged with the murder of his 29-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s day last year. He is out on R1 million ($93,000) bail.
In the tangle of stepladders and tripods there was shoving and anger. Even passing school children and shop workers pushed into the fray.
This is the media frenzy and fuss around Pistorius’ trial. Bernard Hotz, the director and head of the business crimes and forensics practice at Werksmans Attorneys, is one lawyer uncomfortable with it.
“Remember, the person who is on trial here is Oscar Pistorius not the judiciary system. I personally feel that it is problematic for the media to be involved in the way they are. In terms of the bill of rights, the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” says Hotz.
The attorney adds that there’s too much speculation and analysis happening after each word uttered by witnesses, that could hamper the work of the courts.
“If you walk in the street and ask anybody ‘so did he do it or didn’t he do it?’ Most of the people may say he did it, he should go to jail. Whether or not that is right, it can only be decided upon by the judge after hearing all the evidence and applying law,” says Hotz.
But Hotz says he believes the presiding judge, Thokozile Masipa, is strong enough to control the trial.
Masipa, who was once a crime reporter, was stern in court. She warned journalists that if they don’t behave they won’t be treated with soft gloves. This follows the publishing of a picture of a witness, transgressing the conditions of the court.
“You’re dealing with human psychology, if you watch the television, everybody in the court is playing to the audience. That for me runs contrary to our court system in South Africa, bearing in mind we don’t have a jury system here, it’s about presenting evidence to the judge who must decide the case based on the evidence and the law,” says Hotz.
Guilty or innocent, Pistorius will dig deep for this trial.
“Quiet easily, the total cost of the trial, including the year’s preparations, could be anywhere between R6 million ($559,000) and R8 million ($745,000),” says Hotz.
Hotz, senior litigation attorney with 21 years of law experience, says his hourly rate is R3,750 ($350) and R37,500 ($3,500) per day.
“If you take me as an attorney, with my team dealing with a complex civil litigation matter, the cost would be in the same region. Unfortunately, the cost of litigation, not only in South Africa but throughout the world, is exceptionally expensive.”
Pistorius can negotiate a package deal of R100,000 ($9,300) a day for the three weeks of the trial. He could end up paying his legal team up to R2 million ($186,000) over this time.
The price of justice appears to come at a premium.

The High Price Of Justice

When Pistorius appeared in court on June 4, his case was postponed to August 19 for further investigations. The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court was packed with journalists, who started arriving at 5AM. There was pushing and shoving to gain entry into the court building. Ten seats were reserved for the families of the accused and deceased.
Pistorius and his family were met by a large crowd of media outside the court house. Pistorius was wearing a charcoal gray suit with a blue shirt and tie, as he took his seat in the dock. The Blade Runner, as he is known, turned his back on photographers as he was greeted by his brother Carl, sister Aimee and uncle Arnold, before the proceedings. A clean shaven Pistorius spent the proceedings standing up.
It was a short court appearance, where the state asked the court for the matter to be postponed to August to complete the investigation. The docket is still with police. Pistorius’ legal team, led by Advocate Barry Roux, did not oppose the postponement for the appearance that will fall on the day Steenkamp would have turned 30.
After the appearance, when asked why the date of the postponement fell on Steenkamp’s birthday, Medupe Simasiku of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said: “The date was an agreement between the two parties but we were not aware it was the deceased’s birthday. We are satisfied with the progress of the investigation and everything that has been done. We want to see this case going forward fair and square,” he says.
Simasiku says that they are hoping to have the docket in their possession before August 19. But legal experts say the case will be postponed once again, most likely, as the defense team would not have had enough time to study the docket to prepare their case.
Law expert, Advocate Percy Tshabalala, who is not involved in the case, says that once the investigations are concluded, the matter has to be set down and a trial date agreed on.
“The matter will probably be postponed for a trial date and this will give the defence time to prepare. From there, he [Pistorius] will have to plead and then the case will be under way,” says Tshabalala.
It has been established that the delay is due to outstanding forensic results. Police are still to give a report on the forensic analysis of the toilet door through which Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend. The door is being studied to establish the trajectory of the bullets Pistorius fired, which would indicate where he was standing and whether he was wearing his prosthesis.
After being told the matter was postponed, by acting chief magistrate Daniel Thulare, Pistorius softly replied: “Yes your honor”.
After telling Pistorius of the postponement, Thulare took a swipe at the media. This was brought on by graphic photographs of the crime scene, shown by British satellite news channel SkyNews.
Thulare warned against what he referred to as “scandalous and possibly contemptuous” reporting and trial by the media. The photographs showed the bullet holes and blood-spattered bathroom, where Pistorius shot Steenkamp. Thulare asked the state to investigate how information related to the case had come into the public domain. He says this kind of reporting can hinder judicial processes.
“Anyone who has information that might assist at arriving at decision must approach the NPA. It is important that we rally behind the call. It is important that we invite our colleagues from around the world to respect the republic’s processes,” says Thulare.
Pistorius’ family has also lambasted the publishing of the photographs. In a statement on his website, the family says: “We were shaken by the graphic images, leaked into the public domain this week, of the accident scene at Oscar’s house. It has always been our plea that the legal process be allowed [to] run its course with integrity. The leaking of evidential material into the public domain, before the court case, does not advance this process. We continue to have great faith in the South African legal justice system and believe that Oscar’s account of what happened on that terrible night in February will be borne out by the evidence that the defence team will lead in court”.
Pistorius, who is arguably South Africa’s best-known athlete, enjoys support from all over the world. Messages flood his website.
“I felt deeply saddened by the images that appeared today of Oscar entering the court room and not being left alone. He could hardly get to the building. Oscar, please believe that there are those of us who truly believe in you and I will continue to pray for you. My support will not waiver. Oscar I know that the courts, in the end, will do the right thing. Stay strong Oscar and don’t ever forget that you are a good man with a good heart, who made a terrible mistake. Lots of prayers are coming your way,” wrote one supporter.

The Pain Of The Blade Runner

Pistorius has a net worth off $5 million and is on bail, accused of shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Whatever happens during the trial, it is clear that the life of endorsements and advertising campaigns is over.
He is estimated to have received endorsements worth more than $2 million a year. Amongst them was sportswear giant Nike, British Telecommunications, Thierry Mugler fragrance, Oakley sunglass, and Ossur, an Icelandic firm that makes the prosthetic carbon fiber blades, which he wears during his races.
Johannesburg-based marketing and communications strategist Clive Simpkins believes it won’t all be gloom and doom for the 26-year-old athlete, as it’s believed he is a director of several companies among many, owned by the Pistorius family.
“His sponsorship revenues, although evidently worth a hefty sum of money, were not his sole means of support. Even without them, he’s unlikely to suffer financial deprivation. Regardless of the outcome, he’s now pretty much ‘un-sponsorable’, says Simpkins.
He added that no company could afford to associate themselves with Pistorius, out of fear of their brands being eclipsed by the controversial personality connected with it. As the Blade Runner prepares to prove his innocence, the sponsors have moved away. Nike confirmed to FORBES AFRICA that it has suspended its contract with the athlete, but would not say how much it was worth.
“We believe Oscar Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situation closely,” says Seruscka Naidoo, communications manager for Nike South Africa.
The sports apparel giant removed an advert of Pistorius, which showed him setting off from starting blocks alongside the tagline “I am the bullet in the chamber”.
Top sunglass brand Oakley also severed ties with the athlete but again refused to disclose the terms of the contract.
“In light of the recent allegations, Oakley is suspending its contract with Oscar Pistorius, effective immediately. Our hearts are with the families during this difficult time and we’ll continue to follow the developments in this tragic case,” says Cheri Quigley, spokeswoman for Oakley in the States.
Thierry Mugler—Pistorius was the face of its A*Men fragrance in 2011—also withdrew all its campaigns featuring the athlete.
M-Net Movies, a South African pay TV channel, pulled its TV advert campaign and billboards featuring the athlete to promote Hollywood movies, with the run up to the Academy Awards. The advert’s tagline was: “Every night is Oscar night”.
Pistorius was also dropped from the South African leg of the “It Gets Better” global video campaign, where high-profile figures give support to gay teenagers. He was shown in the video saying, “Just remember that you’re special. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to change. Take a deep breath and remember it will get better”.
Assets that the athlete owns include three houses and a vacant plot worth a total of around R8.3 million ($903,300). The house where the shooting took place in a gated security village outside the capital city of Pretoria is worth around R5.6 million ($609,500). The luxury home has been on the market since September 2011. The vacant plot he owns is located in the Western Cape, near Cape Town is worth around $190,000.
In his affidavit Pistorius says that he has an annual income of around R5.6 million and movable assets including household furniture, cars, jewelry worth around $56,000. He also has “cash investments” of around R1 million ($108,800) with various banks in the country.
The athlete is currently on strict bail conditions and was ordered to pay bail of R1 million. In March his lawyers tried to get his bail’s conditions relaxed to no avail. The 26-year-old was ordered to hand over his guns and passport and was forbidden to return to his upscale home, where the shooting took place. He may undergo random, mandatory alcohol and drug tests and also has to report to a police station twice week or be visited by a probation officer. Pistorius will also have to be in regular contact with his probation officials, who will report on his state of mind. He was warned against contacting any potential witnesses in the case against him.
Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder and will appear in court on June 4.
The story caught the eye of rogue trader, Nick Leeson. The man, who at the time aged 25, broke Barings Bank, the Queens bank in Britain. Leeson lost £862 million ($1.3 billion) through unauthorized trading and spent more than four years in a jail in Singapore.
He believes that the truth will come out even though it could take a while.
“The big thing for me is about accountability. You have to accept you did something wrong. And sometimes that’s the most difficult journey. You need to get that degree of accountability, otherwise it’s impossible to move forward. So whatever happened, he has to come to terms with it,” says Leeson.
Sage advice from a former young man to a troubled young man.

Tag: Oscar Pistorius

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Paralympian Oscar Pistorius Granted Parole After Nearly Nine Years In South Africa Prison; Reeva Steenkamp’s Legacy Lives On

The man who helped crack the Oscar Pistorius case

But What About Reeva?

21/10/14: The Day Oscar Went to Prison

The High Price Of Justice

The Pain Of The Blade Runner

Oscar’s Lost Millions