well now, where to even begin….

let’s just say i thought i would be feeling terribly sorry for myself finding myself alone for valentines day when a friend sent me a message first thing in the morning saying that ‘oscar pistorius had accidentally killed his girlfriend reeva steenkamp mistaking her for a burglar when she came to surprise him for valentine’s day. i immediately googled it & of course came up with all the info – mostly from overseas tabloids ironically – but nevertheless there it all was in black & white for the entire world to see. all of a sudden valentine’s day was a faded memory. oh the tragedy beyond tragedy!

there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the story was true. after all living in this country i actually can’t believe this type of story doesn’t happen more frequently – it is THAT believable! i can honestly say that if i owned a firearm my husband’s life would permanently be at risk as every ‘thump in the night’ would have me waving the gun around like a lunatic & well i have no doubt that i would definitely use it if i thought mine or my family’s lives were at risk –  hence a very good reason why i don’t own a gun! but then on the other hand i really do understand why so many people in south africa own guns. they live in constant fear, with a very real ‘siege mentality’ & a need to protect themselves & their loved ones. i’m willing to put money on it that there have been quite a few cases of accidental shootings because of mistaken identity etc…

so when the story broke it all made complete sense to me. how easy it would be that you mistake a shadow in the night for an intruder & blow their brains out. i even went so far as to comment that he probably doesn’t sleep with his prosthetic legs on & so would then even feel more vulnerable should there be an intruder etc…

then it came out that he had shot his girlfriend four (!!!!!) times & well that is when i started to feel a little less confident in the situation. i couldn’t get my head around the need for shooting an intruder four times before actually being sure that this person was in actual fact an intruder. it all seemed a bit strange. but even having said that i was still willing to give the situation the benefit of the doubt after all how do we know how we would behave in the circumstances etc….

then the media frenzy kicked into overdrive & well before we knew it (in fact before any of the actual facts had come to light) the world had lynched & sentenced this guy for the murder of his girlfriend citing domestic violence, some even calling for the death penalty to be brought back all with absolutely no facts to back these statements up. i spent a lot of time reading all the different newspaper accounts of the story & well they all differed completely with their so called evidence. whilst i am not for one minute championing this man’s innocence, as i mentioned beforehand i myself started to have a few doubts on day one, but will i cast judgement on him when not being presented with the actual facts? definitely not!

everyday the media presents new ‘evidence’ along with retracting previous info as they see fit…. really it’s all just turned into a complete circus & don’t even get me onto the vile jokes that people on social media sites have felt the need to go viral with.

i feel that at this moment, until such time as we are presented with ALL the facts, there is only ONE thing that we need to remember & that is that an innocent girl has lost her life here & her family & friends are beyond devastated. no matter what the outcome of this tragedy is this particular fact will never change.

rest in peace beautiful girl

rest in peace beautiful girl