AP
Oscar and Carl Pistorius. File photo: AP
Johannesburg – Oscar Pistorius and his family are back in the public gaze this week as the Paralympian murder accused and his brother, Carl, appear in court.
Murder accused Oscar is trying to have his bail conditions altered or scrapped, while Carl has begun his defence against a culpable homicide charge.
The State is questioning how Oscar Pistorius – who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on February 14 – could have agreed to his bail conditions, only to say that the conditions are unfair.
On Thursday, the Pretoria High Court will hear the State argue that it would be an abuse of process if an applicant agrees to bail conditions, and then appeals against them within a week or two.
On February 22, Pretoria chief magistrate Desmond Nair granted Pistorius R1 million bail, but imposed conditions. Pistorius’s legal team will argue there were no factual grounds on which certain conditions were based.
The State has filed papers on why it is contesting the appeal, but Gerrie Nel, SC, is expected to ask Acting Judge Bert Bam not to entertain the application, believing Pistorius should have first approached Nair if he needed the bail conditions altered, before going to the high court.
Nel previously argued that Pistorius seemed more concerned about carrying on with his life than the charge of murder and the possible consequences.
He said Pistorius’s version that he shot Steenkamp because he mistook her for a burglar lacked an appreciation of the seriousness of the position he found himself in.
Pistorius is complaining, among other things, that he cannot travel abroad as he had to hand in his travel documents and passports.
Nel, in his opposing papers, said there was no indication in Pistorius’s affidavit during his bail application that he wanted to travel. Nothing prevented Pistorius from asking the magistrate for permission to travel.
Nel is expected to argue that while not travelling abroad may restrict Pistorius’s career, he could train and participate in athletics meetings in the country. The State maintains it is in the interests of justice that Pistorius remain within South Africa.
Pistorius is also arguing that although the court found he was not a flight risk, he has to report twice a week to the Brooklyn police station.
Meanwhile, Carl Pistorius, defending a culpable homicide charge, has alleged that the woman motorcyclist who died had been drinking and was speeding. Pistorius pleaded not guilty in the Vanderbijl Magistrate’s Court to the charge, arising from the 2008 collision between his bakkie and 36-year-old Marietjie Barnard’s motorbike.
Pistorius’s advocate Ken Oldwadge said witnesses would testify that they had smelled alcohol on Barnard after the accident. Oldwadge also said he would argue that Barnard had been riding at an “excessive speed”. Barnard died a week later.
Prosecutor Johan Venter called Anton Coetzee, who had been riding his bike near Barnard, behind Pistorius’s bakkie. Coetzee said he was travelling at about 80km/h behind Barnard when she indicated she was going to overtake Pistorius’s bakkie.
“Suddenly the bakkie turned to the right and the bike hit it,” he said. Her bike overturned and she was thrown off. She was seriously injured.
During Coetzee’s cross-examination, Oldwadge showed him pictures of people drinking at the Poker Run where they had been marshalls.
Coetzee said he had not drunk alcohol before the accident and Barnard had also not drunk in his presence. She did generally consume alcohol, but “normally a single whisky”, he said.
Oldwadge produced a medical record compiled a day after the accident. It showed that Barnard had a daily or habitual consumption of red wine and whisky as well as sedatives, sleeping tablets and antidepressants.
The matter was postponed to Wednesday.
The Mercury
