The odious arrogance of Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius was charged in a South African court a while back with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day of this year. He had shot her four times with a 9mm pistol as she cowered behind a bathroom door. He says he thought she was a burglar and the prosecution contends that he knew she was in the bathroom and that he had shot her deliberately.

After the initial court hearing Pistorius was granted a million rand - £73,000 - bail and released under strict conditions which included probatory supervision, compulsory drug and alcohol testing, an interdiction to return to his home, or to approach witnesses, and an interdiction to travel, either inside or outside of South Africa. That which appears reasonable given the gravity of the charges.

Today however it is reported that he has decided to challenge these bail conditions. All of them. Because he thinks they are "unfair".

In other words, Oscar Pistorius, a man who has been charged with cold-blooded murder, considers it to be injust that he be subjected to almost any kind of surveillance or obligation whilst awaiting trial later in the year. He wants to be able to go abroad at will (albeit with police permission), live in his home, next to those of witnesses, and he doesn't want to be under supervision.

Let's be clear about this. Here is a man who has been charged with a vile assassination who wants to have all the freedoms accorded to all free citizens, a man who, by challenging his bail conditions, has given a slap in the face to Steenkamp's memory and her family, a man with no compassion or feelings except when it comes to his own well-being.

Guilty or not of Steenkamp's murder, Oscar Pistorius epitomises the macho and sexist culture of white South Africans in a country where gun crime and the rape and killing of women have reached massive proportions. He has a revoltingly smug sense of entitlement which - and let's be honest - finds its origins in the apartheid era, and if the courts grant him his wishes then all I can say is god help women in South Africa.