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 As judge Thokozile Masipa read out her decision on Pistorius'
Sept. 12 culpable homicide conviction, the 27-year-old, whose
downfall has been likened to that of American football star O.J.
Simpson, stood resolutely in the dock.
His only reaction was to wipe his eyes before two police officers
led him down to the holding cells beneath the High Court in the
heart of the South African capital. An armoured police vehicle took
him from the court building.
Masipa -- only the second black woman to rise to the bench --
stressed the difficulty of arriving at a decision that was "fair and
just to society and to the accused".
The 67-year-old also rebuffed suggestions that Pistorius -- a
wealthy and influential white man -- might be able to secure
preferential justice despite the "equality before law" guarantee
enshrined in South Africa's post-apartheid constitution.
"It would be a sad day for this country if an impression were
created that there is one law for the poor and disadvantaged, and
one law for the rich and famous," she said.
Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, died almost
instantly on Valentine's Day last year when Pistorius shot her three
times through a locked toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home.
The athlete maintained that he fired in the mistaken belief an
intruder was hiding behind the door, a defence that struck a chord
in a country with one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.
The ruling African National Congress' Women's League, which is at
the forefront of political efforts to tackle violence against South
African women, immediately called for an appeal by the state against
the culpable homicide conviction.
However, Steenkamp's family said it was satisfied.
"Justice was served," family lawyer Dup De Bruyn told reporters
outside the court. The judge had given "the right sentence", he
said.
SOUTH AFRICA'S "DARK AGES" GONE
With no minimum sentence for culpable homicide, South Africa's
equivalent of manslaughter, Pistorius could have been punished with
a period of house arrest combined with community service.
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Before the decision, protesters picketed against Pistorius outside
the court, a sign of the anger that might have ensued and the damage
that might have been done to the much-criticised judicial system if
the sentence was seen as too light.
"Why are certain offenders more equal than others before the law?"
said one demonstrator, Golden Miles Bhudu, who stood on the pavement
in orange prison garb and wrapped in chains.
However, Masipa pointed to the moral and philosophical changes South
Africa has undergone since the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994
and the end of white-minority apartheid rule, saying the
"eye-for-an-eye" principle no longer applied and courts did not
dispense mob justice.
"As a country we have moved on from the dark ages," she said.
"Society cannot always get what they want because courts do not
exist to win popularity contests."
Pistorius' defence lawyer, Barry Roux, said he expected the jailed
athlete to serve only 10 months of the five-year sentence behind
bars, and the remainder under house arrest.
However, South Africa's state prosecuting authority disputed this,
saying Pistorius was likely to serve at least a third of his
sentence in prison -- effectively 20 months.
On a separate firearms charge for which Pistorius was also found
guilty, Masipa gave him a three-year suspended sentence.
The athlete, known as "Blade Runner" because of his carbon-fibre
prosthetics, became one of the biggest names in world athletics at
the London 2012 Olympics when he reached the semifinals of the 400m
race against able-bodied athletes.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Louise
Ireland)
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