Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The furore over Judge Thokozile Masipa’s acquittal of Oscar Pistorius has continued to reverberate around South Africa.
The judge last week found that although the Paralympian had recklessly and negligently killed his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year, he was not guilty of the more serious charge of murder.
She ruled that prosecutors, led by Gerrie Nel, had failed to prove that the 27-year-old intended to kill Steenkamp after an argument.
She noted there would always be unanswered questions around aspects of Pistorius’ evidence, and described the athlete as an “untruthful” and “evasive” witness “who had not been candid with the court”.
Nevertheless, she added that this did not necessarily mean he is guilty.
South Africa’s prosecuting authority has said it will wait until after sentencing on October 13, to decide whether to appeal.
However, in the social and traditional media, the nation continued to vent its anger that the double amputee escaped justice despite the fact that he faces a possible prison sentence of up to 15 years for his lesser conviction of culpable homicide.
A poll by research company ROi Africa showed during the judgment that 70% of people debating on social media were negative about the verdict.
Many prominent personalities have also slammed the findings, with American tycoon Donald Trump calling Judge Masipa “a total moron”.
The case has frequently been compared to the O.J. Simpson murder trial in the United States 20 years ago and Denise Brown, Simpson’s former sister-in-law, told Time magazine that she saw many parallels in the two cases.
“It saddens me that 20 years after my sister Nicole’s murder, we are still seeing the same crimes, just different names, over and over again,” she said.
Meanwhile, one Sunday newspaper revealed that Judge Masipa now has police protection and is escorted whenever she leaves her house following criticism that borders on hate speech, contempt of court and defamation.
