[In my loud-ass boxing-commentator’s voice.]
“Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for the fight of the century?”
[Audience roars]
“Well, let’s get ready to rumble! In the right-hand-corner, in orange shorts, weighing in at 95 kilograms, it’s the Olympic gold-medalist himself, Oscar Pistorius. And now for the challenger, standing in the left hand-corner, in green and gold shorts, weighing in at 49 million, it’s the entire country of South Africa.”
Yes, folks, you heard it right here. Oscar Pistorius went up against the entire South Africa. Was it an unfair fight? Should we have just let the courts do their job?
I don’t know. What I do know is that this was one epic fight.
Round one:
With four gun shots he permanently knocked out Reeva Steenkamp.
Round two:
We hear that Oscar is being charged with murder for her death.
Round three:
We, the audience, go crazy! Almost every South African has an opinion on the case.
A lot of us are against him and want to knock him out too.
“Oscar is guilty.”
“He’s a murderer! He should rot in jail for the rest of his life!”
Some of us are in his corner, defending him.
“No, it was an accident. Why would he throw away his great career?”
“Oscar loves this country and he loves his girlfriend, he’d never do anything like that!”
And some of us just don’t care about the whole thing. In fact, we change the channel whenever it comes on TV.
“Ag, who cares, man? Just forget about the dude. He’s just an athlete. It’s not like he’s the president of South Africa or something.”
Round four:
We hear that he “liked” to play with guns and that he even asked his friend to lie for him when his gun fired accidentally. We go even crazier than before!
“So just because he’s rich he gets away with playing with a gun like it’s a toy? Oscar is a liar and a murderer. Don’t let him get away with it!”
South Africa is really divided. Some of us keep asking ourselves: does playing with guns mean you can intentionally kill your girlfriend?
Round five:
Barry Roux, Oscar’s lawyer, and the lawyer’s blonde secretary become famous. For a moment we forget about Oscar and focus on Barry Roux and the hot blonde woman that sits behind him.
He gets a lot of fans.
“Barry Roux is a great lawyer. He will make sure Oscar goes free.”
But he also gets a lot of haters. Some people really don’t like him and the way he keeps asking witnesses a million questions over and over again.
“Ag, Barry Roux is also liar. Why’s he defending a criminal?”
Round six:
After months of hearing about Oscar, South Africa is a bit tired now. We’ve gone back to our daily lives.
But then they tell us the judgment is coming. We’re now about to get an answer to the million dollar question. Is Oscar Pretorius guilty of murder or not?
Judge Masipa tells us he’s NOT guilty of murder.
South Africa is shocked.
“There’s no justice in this country! Rich people can do whatever they like and the law does nothing to them.”
But some are celebrating.
“I never believed Oscar was guilty. The judge was right. The guy didn’t mean to kill his girlfriend.”
Round seven:
We hear that he should’ve been more careful with his gun. And the judge finds him guilty of carelessly firing his gun at Reeva. Now we wait for the sentence. How much time should Oscar spend in prison? Should he even be spending any time in prison?
Once again, South Africa is divided. There are a lot of different opinions.
Round eight:
Finally, it’s the end of the case. The sentence is here. Judge Masipa says he should spend five years in jail. Was it a fair sentence? Should he be spending less or more time in jail?
South Africa is still divided.
Round nine:
Oscar begins serving his jail sentence. South Africa doesn’t really care anymore. Everyone goes back to taking taxis to work and complaining about the Nkandla money.
Round ten:
I write this blog and I ask you tell me what you think.
What do you think about the Oscar trial? Do you agree with the outcome? And do you think that there is justice in South African law?
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