Pretoria - Reeva Steenkamp’s cousin decided to testify in the sentencing procedures of Oscar Pistorius because she needed a voice, Kim Martin said in the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
“I knew I had to be here, I had to do this, I had to do this for Reeva, I owe her this. I know Reeva needs a voice. My way of looking at this is to pay her back for what she meant to me,” Martin said.
Martin said she spoke to Steenkamp’s parents, June and Barry, on Tuesday because she was worried she would disappoint them when she took the stand and spoke about family matters. Barry told her that she could never disappoint them, that she had their blessing and needed to be “Reeva’s voice”.
Barry said he would “just lose it” if he had to take the stand, according to Martin.
On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the 2013 Valentine’s Day shooting of Steenkamp in his Pretoria town house. He was found not guilty of murder. Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, claiming he thought she was an intruder.
Martin spoke about the moment she heard a radio “breaking news” announcement that Oscar Pistorius had shot and killed his girlfriend.
She had been driving in the car with her husband.
“I remember saying to my husband ‘I hope to God he’s cheating on Reeva...’ I was just praying it wasn’t Reeva. He said Oscar Pistorius. I remember jumping up on the front seat. It was the worst experience I have ever had. I felt like it was the end of the world. I called Reeva... I called and called and she wasn’t answering. I remember screaming in the car,” said Martin.
Her voice cracked. She broke down, her face reddened.
In the public gallery, Barry and June Steenkamp also wiped away tears – showing emotion for the first time since the trial started.
Cutting a lone figure in the dock, Pistorius wept bitterly, his head buried in his hands.
In the court, emotions ran high and everyone who had been close to Steenkamp was tearful, except for the side of the bench occupied by the Pistorius family.
Pistorius’s supporters remained stony-faced, a stark contrast to the emotional episodes they had displayed in court when it was Pistorius breaking down.
Pistorius’s sister Aimee was seen wiping away tears, but remained seated.
Only Pistorius’s lawyer, advocate Barry Roux, SC, comforted him.
Seated a few steps from him in the public gallery, his blonde ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor also shed a tear. So did her mother Trish and Steenkamp’s friends Gina and Kim Meyers.
As Judge Thokozile Masipa adjourned proceedings for Martin to compose herself, her husband went to the witness stand to console her.
Steenkamp was the first baby she ever held, she told the court.
“The very first time I held a baby was when Reeva was born. I was 12. My aunt gave her to me and I was very scared. We had a very strong bond from a young age. She had a nurturing personality even from a young age,” she said.
Martin continued: “I remember calling my mother, saying ‘Please tell me it’s not Reeva.’ She said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s her’.”
Martin’s voice cracked. She said she could not remember much of what happened after that, or any events of the days following.
But she remembers her aunt and uncle’s pain.
“My aunt was hysterical… she was very medicated. My uncle sat in the corner. He was crying… crying and crying. Reeva was everything to them. She was their only child for a long time.
“They absolutely adored here. They were so proud of her… what she had accomplished. Reeva was… I didn’t know how they would cope. I didn’t think they would cope,” she said, adding that her own children had to have therapy.
Martin had met Pistorius a month earlier, on January 2 when he was in Cape Town with her cousin.
“I remember asking Reeva, ‘Are you happy?’ She shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘yes… but we need to talk.’ I never got a chance to ask her, ‘What do you mean we need to talk?’ That has bothered me since then,” Martin said.
For her, Steenkamp was more than the model the world knew.
“She was a fun-loving child. From a young age, she stood out. Something about her… she was like a little missy,” Martin said.
Steenkamp loved animals so much that when a family poodle named Jade got paralysed and lost the use of its legs, she became its legs. “She would carry it around,” Martin added.
Then there were cats, stray cats she would take in and take care of.
One of the cats went missing while in Martin’s care. For two days, they searched for the cat, and she had to lie about it being okay when Steenkamp called to check up on it. But the cat was never found and they had to break the news to her.
“She was devastated… heartbroken. For her that was like losing a child,” Martin told the court.
The trial continues.
The Star and Sapa