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The Pistorius killing: The South African shots heard all around

19.06.13

Everyone, I suppose, knows what happened. In the early hours of Valentine's Day, Oscar Pistorius, Olympic gold medallist, double amputee and a national hero, fired four shots through a locked bathroom door and killed the woman concealed behind it. Pistorius claims he thought he was ­shooting an intruder, but the police have charged him with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.

The case dominated news around the world. A Canadian broadcaster called it the biggest story from South Africa since the release of Nelson Mandela, which may say something about excitement levels in Canada, but not a lot about how these things play out in South Africa.

Because the oddest thing about the Pistorius shooting is that it isn't really odd at all. Upwards of 15000 times a year – and I am talking of a good year – a man reaches for a weapon, and someone, often a woman, dies. The country shakes its collective head, shrugs and moves on. When homicide is this prevalent, the story of a legless man who shoots his girlfriend may earn, at best, a para­graph in the papers because it has a piquancy that run-of-the-mill shootings tend to lack.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online