After nearly 11 years in prison, South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was released on parole on Friday. Pistorius was convicted for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a case that has reignited the conversation about violence against women in a country plagued by such crimes.
Pistorius, who claims that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot her, served about eight and a half years in prison and seven months under house arrest. However, for many in South Africa, this punishment does not meet the severity of his crime.
According to police data, about 12 women are murdered in South Africa every day, and more than 42,000 rapes were recorded in the year up to March 2023. This context of pervasive violence against women has led to a strong reaction to Pistorius’ release.
Bulelwa Adonis, a spokesperson for Women For Change, expressed disappointment, stating, “Considering that I’m a woman in the rape capital of the world, I’m really disheartened. It seems like there is a normalised mentality of leniency when it comes towards predators, we are talking about an individual that took a life.”
Pistorius was initially given a five-year jail term in 2014 for culpable homicide before the ruling was appealed, and he was convicted of murder. He was granted parole after serving more than half of this eventually 13-year-five-month sentence.
Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, commented that the parole conditions, which include courses on gender-based violence, send a clear message that violence against women is taken seriously. However, some residents of Pretoria, where Pistorius killed Steenkamp, disagreed with this sentiment.
One resident, 23-year-old Siphiwe Moola, expressed that Pistorius’ release shows “justice doesn’t serve us as women.” Others, like an anonymous man, said Pistorius should go back to jail because “We do not want him around, he is going to kill our wives and sisters.”
There were some who believed Pistorius deserved a second chance, but still had concerns. Keitumetse Mamphekgo, a 19-year-old resident of Pretoria, shared, “I don’t think women will feel safe around him because history tends to repeat itself. What are the chances of him doing it again?”
(Reporting by Thando Hlophe and Sisipho Skweyiya; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Joe Bavier, William Maclean)
