Botho Molosankwe
JOHANNESBURG: Oscar Pistorius’s official website has had a massive revamp in a few days.
This is thanks to a PR drive his team launched after he was accused of killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius’s family has taken a decision to devote his official website to the latest news about developments as well as messages of support. The website is also open to Pistorius’s fans from all over the world who have been posting messages of support and Bible verses, wishing him luck and praying for him.
It also contains a copy of the affidavit read by his lawyer in court on Tuesday, explaining events that he said led to the shooting of Steenkamp.
What is missing, however, are all the logos of his sponsors. This time last week, when one clicked on the logos of sponsors such as Nike, the page would open to an article. Today, those logos have been removed from the website after his sponsors dropped him.
The website has a different picture gallery, media articles and messages of support, among others. Despite a huge interest in the Pistorius story worldwide, there were only four articles under “media articles” yesterday afternoon.
Two were from last year, informing his fans that the athlete would be appearing on the Piers Morgan Tonight Show as well as the Tonight with Jay Leno show. The other two are recent opinion pieces.
One is from Duncan Reyburn, who claims to have been at school with Pistorius and happens to work “at the university that Oscar used to go to, just one block away from the prison where he has been held”. However Pistorius is not being held in prison, but is in custody at the Brooklyn police station.
In his article, Reyburn makes it clear that South Africa is to blame for his actions.
“… sadly, Oscar is the product of our culture. He is… a product of us – we are reactive, terrified, wounded people.
“I have no judgment yet on Oscar’s guilt. I fully understand the possibility that Oscar could have acted the way he did because he was afraid, because he wanted to protect his girlfriend,” Reyburn says.
Matthew Syed, who wrote another opinion piece that appeared in The Times of London, blasts Pistorius’s critics, saying what was happening was “quantity of cod psychology (fake psychology) that has been unleashed”.
There’s also a statement from Pistorius’s uncle, Arnold, from the entire family. “We believe that this (the website) is an appropriate way to deal with the expressions of support as well as keeping the media informed about any key developments. We have every confidence that when the world has heard the full evidence that this will prove to be a terrible and tragic accident.”