The South African, Issue 528, 20-26 August 2013

Page 1

www.thesouthafrican.com

20 - 26 August 2013

Issue 528

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OSCAR’S TRIAL DATE SET ON REEVA’S BIRTHDAY

KING

STEER FOR ONLY

|Oscar Pistorius’s appeared in court on Reeva Steenkamp’s birthday, where his trial date was set for March 2014 and he will face charges of premeditated murder and illegal possession of ammunition

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by STAFF REPORTER

OSCAR Pistorius’s trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp has been transferred to the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to start on 3 March, 2014. This was announced by Magistrate Desmond Nair during the star Paralympian’s brief appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday, which would have been Steenkamp’s 30th birthday. The 26-year-old sprinter arrived at the court surrounded by dozens of reporters and cameramen. Steenkamp’s family and friends sat near to Pistorius’s family in the packed courtroom, where the athlete once again struggled to contain his emotions as he stood in the dock. The state is arguing that Steenkamp’s death on 14 February was premeditated murder, a charge which carries a sentence of life imprisonment. Prosecutors handed over a five-page indictment, giving Pistorius’s legal team a chance to understand just how the State will approach the case. The indictment contains two counts: premeditated murder and an additional charge of illegal possession of ammunition. Nair said, “The matter before me today is merely for the postponement to the high court.” According to South Africa’s Sunday Times, the police have built a case against Pistorius as a trigger-happy gunman prone to violent outbursts, which they will say was why he killed Steenkamp. Pistorius’s past boasting of being

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FLAME-GRILLED, IT JUST TASTES BETTER

POACHING WARS: On page 5, read all about a new two-part ITV documentary starting on 22 August, in which BAFTA awardwinning actor Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) travels to SA, Botswana and Tanzania to find out why poaching has reached crisis levels and to see for himself what can be done to stop the killing

a crack shot and threats to “break people’s legs” could come back to haunt him because the prosecution will now rely on former girlfriends and acquaintances in an attempt to expose his “aggressive character”. The State intends to call 107 witnesses, including former investigating officer Hilton Botha, Steenkamp’s ex-boyfriend Warren Lahoud, Pistorius’s sister Aimee, uncle Arnold and former soccer player Marc Batchelor. Batchelor is expected to testify about an altercation between him

and Pistorius during which the athlete threatened to “break his legs”. Samantha Taylor, who dated Pistorius before he started dating Steenkamp, has also turned State witness and has told police about an incident in which Pistorius “stood up and fired shots through the sunroof” while she was driving along a highway. Taylor previously claimed that Pistorius had a dark side not many people knew about. Her mother wrote on Facebook Continued on page 2

INSIDE:

p3 | SA tech mavericks point way to the future of transport and telephony p6 | Guitar maestro Guy Buttery launches new album in UK

p9 | Wifi for the people: Telkom’s free internet offer

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