SA Hero Shoots GF Dead

All the talk these days here in South Africa surrounds the recent fallen hero, Oscar Pistorius. For those of you who didn't watch the African version of DSTV during the London Olympics, Pistorius is supremely famous for being a double-amputee who excelled not only in the Paralympics, but also was the first double amputee to compete in the actual Olympics in London 2012.

Oscar Pistorius on the starting block

The tragedy?

Oscar Pistorius, winner of races and uniter of races (hah, get the pun?) here in SA, shot his girlfriend dead early in the morning of February 14th. Talk about a bad Valentine's day. :(

Pistorius and his girlfriend

The first rumor about the cause of the shooting was that he had thought his girlfriend was an intruder. This came about in part because of a tweet he posted last November:

He has been interviewed in the past stating that he also kept a "machine gun by the window." Perhaps overly paranoid, but keep in mind many South Africans are paranoid here. Crime is pretty crazy and especially white South Africans are infamous for their barbed-wire fences, security guards, barred-windows, and twelve-foot high walls around every house. The Silver Woods Country Estate, where Pistorius lived in Pretoria, is actually known for being one of the safest of the ubiquitous compounds where South Africans tend to live. That said, in 2004, a Springbok rugby player shot his 19-year-old daughter dead in the middle of the night because he thought she was a car thief stealing his car. So Pistorius is not alone in screwing up like this, not even for a famous guy.

All of that said, it has started to come out that she was sitting on the sink, locked in the bathroom in her nightgown, when he shot her. Doesn't sound much like an accident to me, nor the press. His girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was a model and law graduate, and he shot her four times with a 9mm through the bathroom door.

Pistorius appeared in court and cried, so he obviously seems to regret having done this. Rumors now swirl around, saying that he has always had anger problems (supposedly shot a gun into the floor of a nearby restaurant a couple of months ago), that his previous ex-girlfriends were not treated well, that it might have been "'roid rage," and who knows what else.

Random Kate Thoughts: Everyone here is really sad. They are sad for Steenkamp's death, but much more so for their fallen hero, Pistorius. He united people with his gold medals, and now everyone feels betrayed by his actions. And while thousands of women in South Africa experience violence at the hands of their partners every year, this week, all eyes are on this story. What might be the value of a poster child, so to speak? The story of Anene Booysen, a girl in another part of South Africa, who was sadistically raped and murdered, seems to have galvinized the country into action against sexual violence. What about domestic violence? Might this do the same? Or is it just going to be another celebrity gone wrong?

For the final bit of irony in this whole saga, here is the ad that Nike was going to run in the near future, featuring Pistorius himself.

Needless to say, it has been pulled.