In a rare moment that wasn’t captured by the world’s media yesterday, Pistorius made a surprising move during a break in proceedings.
Former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius told the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) yesterday that it should do for disabled people what they do for women.
League president Jacqui Mofokeng said she was surprised when Pistorius approached her and a colleague during a break in his sentencing proceedings in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria and shook their hands.
“He was saying to me, ‘I know you women have a responsibility and you’re doing it for women.’
“He said to us … ‘do it also for people with disabilities’.
“I said, yes, we do it for the women of South Africa, because nobody has a right to take anybody’s life.
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| Fight for the disabled the same way you fight for women Pistorius tells ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) |
Pistorius is facing a minimum term of 15 years’ imprisonment after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) set aside his culpable homicide conviction and found him guilty of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. His lawyers are trying to build an argument for leniency by offering mitigating circumstances to the court. Much of this centres on his disability.
Steenkamp died after being shot in the head, arm and hip when Pistorius fired into the locked toilet door she was sitting behind. He had told the court he was on his stumps and thought he was shooting at an intruder to protect their lives against what he feared was an imminent attack.
The SCA found that Pistorius should have foreseen that the person, whoever it was, behind the door would be killed.
Psychologist professor Jonathan Scholtz testified on Monday that Pistorius’s post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, social phobia and agoraphobia had increased since 2014, and he urgently needed hospitalisation. Further imprisonment would devastate him psychologically.
sourceonline
