Pretoria - The state will call a final witness in Oscar Pistorius's sentencing hearing after Reeva Steenkamp's father cried as he told the North Gauteng High Court the former Paralympian should pay for murdering his daughter.
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel told Judge Thokozile Masipa the last witness would give “emotional evidence” in aggravation of sentence for the disabled sprinter who shot and killed his girlfriend, a model, three years ago.
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“My lady, I have a witness to call. However, I would like to call the witness if we can finalise the witness today (Tuesday). If not, I would rather do the witness tomorrow (Wednesday). I only have one more witness,” Nel said. “I will call this witness at 9.30. This witness's evidence will be a maximum of two hours and we will both be ready to argue. I say it with the utmost respect, I don't want to take the chance with the witness's evidence carrying overnight. It will be emotional evidence, which I cannot do to the witness. My request is that we now stand down and continue tomorrow.”
Pistorius's counsel, Advocate Barry Roux SC, objected to Nel's request. “With respect, why can't the witness give evidence for the next hour? If the examination is going on until tomorrow, then it goes on tomorrow. We cannot stand down every time, before every new witness. It is a waste of time. It is just not fair on the accused or on anyone. Let him or her give evidence, I don't know who it is,” Roux protested.
He said Nel was playing “tactics” with the witness. In response, Nel said he was simply protecting his witness, who was present at court on Tuesday. “I'm not doing any tactics as Mr Roux suggests. I'm just doing the best I can for my witness. I cannot allow the witness to stand down overnight. If we agree now that I call in the witness, then we have to finalise the evidence. I don't want to keep the witness overnight. My Lady, it is not any tactics,” said Nel.
Masipa then acceded to Nel's requested and the court adjourned.
There was some speculation outside the packed court room that Nel would call Steenkamp's mother June. Earlier, Reeva's father Barry told the court that he felt like his daughter's murder on Valentine's Day in 2013 happened “yesterday”.
Steenkamp was shaking and battling to hold back tears as he described his grief since Pistorius shot and killed his daughter at his Pretoria home in the early hours of the morning. Pistorius has maintained that he believed his girlfriend was an intruder when he fired four fatal shots into a locked toilet door.
Steenkamp said the family had declined meeting with Pistorius despite his attempts through lawyers to do so. But he said he would like to one day, when the time was right, to talk to Pistorius.
The 73-year-old father described the devastating effect the murder had on his family.
At the end of the his testimony, Steenkamp said it was his wish that Pistorius pay for what he did. “June is also a Christian. I don't really go to church but I'm a Christian. June has forgiven. She feels that it is right in her heart to forgive Oscar. But then you must understand, by forgiving like that, it still doesn't exonerate you from the crime you committed”, Steenkamp said.
Pistorius wept throughout Steenkamp's testimony and his brother Carl rushed to comfort him when the court was briefly adjourned.
Another witness, a senior health official at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services Centre in Pretoria on Tuesday told the court she had clashed with Pistorius during his twelve months at the facility. “He came to me and demanded his medication which had been sent from his family. I refused to give him that medication because he was having similar medication prescribed by Dr Tsatsi (a prison official) on 29 December 2014. He said I must take that medicine,” Charlotte Mashabane, assistant health manager at the prison said under cross-examination by Roux.
Roux asked: “When he said take your medication, I want my medication, was it terrible?” Mashabane said it was. “I explained to him the procedures and that I was not going to give him that medication. He started with anger, saying I must give him his medication. He said it with attitude. He mentioned it with this anger, the displaying of the anger. I don't know how to describe it.”
She told the court there was another confrontation when she entered Pistorius's cell with other prison staff and he became angry and told them to leave. “He said he was still sleeping and we were disturbing him. He shouted 'get out'. I explained to him that we were doing routine checks on inmates,” said Mashabane.
The trained nurse said Pistorius covered his head with a sheet and the prison officials left for another cell.
Pistorius, a former athletics sensation dubbed “Blade Runner” but now a convicted murderer, will learn this week how long he is to spend behind bars for killing his Steenkamp.
A murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison in South Africa.
When he stood trial in 2014, Masipa sentenced Pistorius to five years in prison for culpable homicide. After serving about a fifth of that sentence in the hospital wing of Kgosi Mampuru II prison in central Pretoria, he was released and placed under house arrest at his uncle's home in the leafy suburb of Waterkloof. But in December the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned Masipa's verdict and found Pistorius guilty of murder.
In March, the Constitutional Court denied him leave to appeal that conviction.
Masipa will now sentence him for murder.
ANA