Oscar: An Accident Waiting to Happen

by Melinda Ferguson

  Before we became estranged from Oscar, we couldn’t talk about any of these things for fear of compromising and exposing him. We couldn’t talk about them afterwards either, although this was more due to fear in case one of his friends carried out his threats to harm Sammy or the family. There was also always the possibility that our version of events would get twisted, by the media or his friends, and we could suddenly be implicated in some of his wrongdoings.

  Oscar loved guns. There was no doubt about that. He owned at least six licensed firearms and had applied for licences for another six. Why anyone would want 12 guns is a mystery to me. (Although gun lovers apparently see this as quite normal, especially if they belong to gun clubs, as Oscar did – the Lowveld Firearm Collectors Association – a gun collectors’ club which he joined in April 2012.)

  His gun collection was clearly his pride and joy. He seemed to love Smith & Wesson – he owned a Smith & Wesson 500, described as “the most powerful production revolver in the world” and on the Smith & Wesson website as “a hunting handgun for any game animal walking”. It fires .500-caliber shells and holds five rounds.

  He also owned another revolver, a snub-nosed looking gun, just 4.7cms long – a Smith & Wesson .38-calibre, popular as a self-defence weapon.

  Along with those two handguns, he owned three shotguns, a Mossberg, a Maverick and a Winchester, all American makes.

  On top of these he owned a Vektor .223-calibre rifle: an incredibly powerful civilian version of the R-series assault rifle used by South Africa’s military. Apparently this is not the kind of gun the average person owns or carries around. The gun is so powerful that its bullet can travel for over 500 metres. It’s not the kind of gun that would usually be used in an urban or suburban setting due to its carrying power, and is most popular with sports shooters, security firms, farmers and collectors. Why Oscar had this gun in his home is anyone’s guess.

  Unlike most areas of his life, where he was pretty closed up and private, he spoke to the media openly about his guns. New York Times journalist Michael Sokolove wrote a profile on the Paralympian, and Oscar invited him to shoot a few rounds at a nearby firing range, so the experience of watching Oscar shoot has been well documented.

  “He fetched his 9-millimeter handgun and two boxes of ammunition. We got back in the car and drove to a nearby firing range, where he instructed me on proper technique. Pistorius was a good coach. A couple of my shots got close to the bull’s-eye, which delighted him. ‘Maybe you should do this more,’ he said. ‘If you practised, I think you could be pretty deadly.’ I asked him how often he came to the range. ‘Just sometimes when I can’t sleep,’ he said.”

  I also recall reading in a newspaper where he told a journalist how, when speeding through a township, he accidentally ran over a dog. When he saw it injured and dragging its back legs, he got out of his car, walked over to the dog and shot it in the head, leaving the owner horrified.

  He regularly referred to his guns and shooting on the social media forum Twitter and when he was training at his private track in Gemona, in north-eastern Italy, he often took breaks by target practising at a shooting range near Tolmezzo. In November 2011, Oscar posted a photo of himself on Twitter, firing a rifle, with the caption: “Had a 96% headshot over 300m from 50 shots! Bam!”

  In June 2012 during the time he spent training in Italy, before the Olympics, he posted tweets that he was going back to Tolmezzo to shoot vintage rifles, adding: “Amped to the max! Yeaaah boi!!”

  Although I never really followed him on Twitter, when I saw these gun-bragging tweets, they sickened me. I think at the time I just tried to ignore them and prayed that he would never harm anyone and would be responsible with his guns. I suppose what worried me most was the possibility that, in one of his frequent bouts of depression, he would perhaps use a gun against himself. So when the tragic Valentine’s shooting happened, it felt almost eerily inevitable, but it still came as an enormous shock when we found out he had shot someone else.

  When I think about it, his preoccupation with guns was not that unusual in a gun-crazy country like South Africa. According to an article from March 2013, “Two years ago Police Minister Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa said that among the country’s 49 million people there were 1.7 million registered firearm owners holding 2.9 million guns.” We read about it constantly, how gun ownership is particularly prevalent in high-crime parts of South Africa. Horrifying stats wallpaper our world as we hear how the South African Police registers more than 15 000 murders a year.

  After Reeva’s death, the UK-based newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mirror quoted Oscar’s father, Henke Pistorius, as saying the family owns a number of handguns for self-defence.

  South Africa’s Beeld newspaper reported that the runner’s father, three uncles and grandfather own 55 firearms between them – ranging from handguns to rifles.

  “Some of the guns are for hunting and some are for protection, the handguns,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Henke Pistorius as saying. “It speaks to the ANC government, look at white crime levels, why protection is so poor in this country, it’s an aspect of our society… You can’t rely on the police, not because they are inefficient always but because crime is so rife.”

  The ANC immediately responded to Henke Pistorius’ off-the-cuff inflammatory remarks. ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said it “rejects with contempt” the suggestion that the ANC government doesn’t adequately protect white South Africans against crime.

  “Not only is this statement devoid of truth, it is also racist,” Mthembu said. “It is sad that he has chosen to politicise a tragic incident that is still fresh in the minds of those affected and the public.”

  Although of course it would be naive to say that there are no safety and security problems in our beautiful country, it’s where we have chosen to live, and we remain proudly South African. Thank God we have never been harmed or threatened, except, of course, by one of Oscar’s friends. I deeply believe in striving for a better, more peaceful country. But obviously security and violence are a much-discussed, highly contentious subject in South Africa.

  Embarrassed by Henke Pistorius’ statement, the family distanced themselves from it and responded in the media: “Oscar Pistorius’s family is deeply concerned about the comments made by Oscar’s father, Henke Pistorius, to the UK newspaper, the Telegraph, about the family using its weapons to defend themselves against crime in South Africa, and especially about his comments that the ANC government is not willing to protect white South Africans.”

  Trying to do some damage control, Arnold Pistorius, Oscar’s uncle, released a statement saying that, “the Pistorius family own weapons purely for sport and hunting purposes”.

  That, however, contradicted Oscar’s own testimony, based on a self-defence angle, to the magistrate who freed him on bail. In an affidavit, Oscar said he slept with his 9mm handgun under his bed because, “I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before.”

  But if truth be told, Oscar couldn’t have chosen a more protected place to live than in Silver Woods Country Estate, an expansive, high-security, gated property, probably one of the safest residential areas in all of South Africa.

  Situated just outside the country’s capital, Pretoria, the lavish estate is idyllic in every way. Described as a “prestigious security estate” with “class, style and distinction”, it’s built on the border of a private game sanctuary, the Farm Inn, where “the sounds of lions and other wildlife can often be heard”, with 23 species of wild animals kept at the private game sanctuary. At the time Oscar bought his property at Silver Woods, the Farm Inn had a cheetah-breeding programme. Early on in their relationship, Oscar took Sam and a journalist from a UK-based publication along with him to spend the day there, during which time stunning pictures of Oscar and the cheetahs were taken and published all over the world.

  Silver Woods boasts top-notch security which, along with guns, is one of many South Africans’ top preoccupations. It has
electrified fences, armed 24-hour security guards and controlled access. As a result it’s one of the most sought-after choices of residence in the area because of its high levels of safety.

  According to Sammy, she always felt totally safe when she stayed there, apart from the few times Oscar himself frightened her.

  It was there, in September 2009, at Oscar’s house on the Silver Woods Estate, where Cassidy Taylor-Memmory, a guest and friend of his former girlfriend Melissa Rom, claims to have been not only frightened, but injured by Oscar. Apparently the two friends came across Oscar kissing another girl and an argument broke out. According to Memmory he told Melissa and all her friends to leave. Carrying Oscar’s version of events, the media reported that Oscar accused Cassidy of getting rowdy, using too much alcohol, and tried to evict her from his house. According to Oscar she resisted and kicked a door and hurt her foot. In a totally different version of events Cassidy laid a charge of assault against him at the Boschkop police station, accusing him of slamming a door on her so hard that a piece of wood shattered and injured her foot. She denied that she was in any way drunk. The matter was finally confidentially settled out of court in February 2014, with Oscar paying Memmory’s costs.

  One of the questions I am asked most often is whether Oscar ever threatened Sammy with violence or with guns or whether he harmed her in any other way. There were in fact a few times, beyond driving at reckless speeds, when he either seriously frightened her or potentially endangered her life. She was, for instance, in the car when he shot through the sunroof, after being stopped by the police, an incident that still horrifies me when I think of it.

  I was also well aware of occasions when he screamed at her and used foul language in arguments. In fact there were times when he yelled at her so badly on the phone that I would hear him shouting on the line from another room!

  There was also an incident when Sammy was sitting on the bed at his house in Silver Woods. Oscar was on his phone, SMSing as usual, when she playfully jumped on his back, trying to see what he was doing. She later told me how he got really angry and threw her off his back onto the bed. He obviously didn’t want her to see who he was texting. He also “playfully” bit her once, and she had really deep bruising and bite marks on her arm. They looked awful.

  It seemed as if Oscar regularly got into fights. He told us one evening how he had kicked someone in a heated argument at a club and his leg had come off. And he often had verbal fights during which he screamed and shouted at his friends, even at Sammy’s friends, which I found deeply upsetting. I wondered how a man, who came across to so many as well mannered and inspirational, could treat and speak to young girls like this.

  In November 2011, just after Sammy and Oscar started dating, a trainer at our gym in Lonehill tried to warn me, saying Oscar was not who the public thought he was. He said there’d been a number of incidents in which Oscar had behaved badly; he mentioned a recent Kings of Leon concert where Oscar had allegedly gotten very drunk and become verbally abusive towards two women at the concert. The incident was reported in a blog post, titled ‘Oscar Pistorius – Hero or Hooligan?’ written by one of the offended women, posted on the Media24, News24 website, on 3 November 2011. According to the post, after repeatedly falling into them, one of the women tried to admonish Oscar. Things got ugly and he responded by calling them:

  “Fucking lesbians.”

  When I was told the story by the trainer, it was during the early days of Sammy and Oscar’s relationship and I simply refused to believe that the soft-spoken, well-mannered Oscar who had just come into our lives could be capable of this. I thought people were just being nasty and were simply jealous of Oscar’s success. I often wish I had listened more closely to the warnings.

  Whenever stories like these came up, somehow he always managed to get away with it, justifying his actions. He had an uncanny ability to come across as innocent, making himself look like the injured party, and for a long time, because we regarded him as an extended member of the family, we gave him the benefit of the doubt.

  However, when Sammy told me of one particular incident, a number of warning bells went off. She told me about a night when he had been drinking heavily at his home in Silver Woods. Sammy, Oscar and his friend Alex were in the lounge, when he threw alcohol onto the floor, lit it, made this bonfire out of alcohol, picked Sam up and danced with her all over the room, around the fire. She described to me how scared she was as he was quite out of control because of the drinking and he could easily have dropped her. He then tried to pick up Alex and stumbled and fell, which resulted in him chipping his tooth. Sam helped him to bed. Without warning he turned on her and started screaming at her, accusing her of punching him in the mouth and breaking his tooth. Sammy was terrified by his sudden mood change and his aggressiveness and ended up hiding his gun…

  Another night when she was sleeping over, Oscar woke up after hearing a noise. He was convinced someone had broken in. He then woke Sammy up to ask her whether she had heard the disturbance. He did this a number of times during their relationship. He always checked whether she had also heard a noise, unlike the night he shot Reeva when he allegedly didn’t establish where she was or whether she had heard the sound of a possible intruder.

  Later on the morning after Reeva was shot, in a state of sheer shock and panic I went to Facebook and wrote: “I am so glad that Sammy is safe and sound and out of the clutches of that man – there were a few occasions where things could have gone wrong with her and his gun during the time they dated. My condolences to the family whose daughter has passed away. My heart breaks for you.”

  Although I removed the post two hours later because it went viral across the world and I totally lost control over how people were interpreting it, I will never regret saying it. At that point it felt like, by closing the door on Oscar before he began dating Reeva, I had literally snatched my daughter from the jaws of death. I truly believe a tragic incident with Oscar and guns was bound to happen. It was just a matter of how, where and when.

  I think guns gave Oscar that same high as sport did. The euphoria produced by the release of endorphins that he derived from running was similar to what he experienced when he was loading his gun and target practising on a shooting range. I think chasing women and driving fast cars gave him a similar sensation.

  And indeed, just as much as Oscar’s fascination with guns caused me sleepless nights, I was also deeply disturbed by the reckless way in which he drove.

  He was a super-confident driver as he had been behind the wheel since the age of 12. He regularly broke the speed limit and liked to fraternise with the type of twenty-somethings who lived for fast cars.

  After the first time he endangered Sammy’s life by driving at over 300 kilometres per hour with her in the passenger seat, I was always gripped by anxiety when I knew they were driving anywhere. I remember seeing photos of the speedometer and feeling my stomach literally turn. To say that Oscar was obsessed with fast cars is no exaggeration. He owned a few of them, including a super-fast white Nissan GTR that can accelerate from 0 to 100kms in just over three seconds. He named his dog Enzo (after Enzo Ferrari); he was a partner in a company that services Ferraris; and in late 2012 he ordered a McLaren, customised for him with all the bells and whistles.

  The order for the car was cancelled after Reeva was killed.

  After a row late one night in 2008, while he was still involved in his tumultuous relationship with Vicky Miles, he jumped into his car at 3am and drove from Durban to Johannesburg to make peace. He fell asleep behind the wheel and hit a rail, writing off his car in the process.

  When Michael Sokolove, the journalist from the New York Times, drove to the shooting range with Oscar, he wrote that: “Oscar’s love for speed went beyond the athletics track to macho pursuits like power bikes and sports cars.”

  “We were driving 150 miles (240 kilometres) an hour,” Sokolove said. “There was a point that it was raining. We were on some state turnpike, and he’s weaving in
between cars and tailgating them. And just really insane driving. He saw it as sport. But I feared he would hurt himself.”

  To Sokolove, he said of his love for running and cars: “Actually both are pretty therapeutic… If I’m running or I’m out on my bike or in a car, it really takes my mind off things. Take a bike, for example. You’re concentrating so much that you can’t really have your mind on anything else.”

  But his love for speed was not limited just to fast cars and motorbikes. In 2009, he had a near-fatal accident in a speedboat at the Vaal, when he lost control of the boat as it hit a submerged peer. He was airlifted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg with a fractured skull, a smashed orbital socket, and a broken nose, jaw and several ribs. He spent a week in an emergency ward, undergoing reconstructive surgery, having 172 stitches in his face. He said he had learnt his lesson and would slow down after that, but I think that lesson, as was always the case with Oscar, only lasted for as long as his bruises and cuts showed.

  Oscar spoke to us about the accident a couple of times, and always said how upset he was that the media had insinuated that he had been drunk. When he told the story, I believed him, but the photos of the boat strewn with bottles of booze showed a different picture.

  In the end, Oscar was never charged with recklessness or negligence for the boat accident. Despite evidence of alcohol he was never breathalysed.

  “People could have been killed,” said sports writer Graeme Joffe in an interview. “He could have killed himself – he had to have all that facial surgery. It was obviously a case of reckless negligence. A lot of alcohol was later discovered, but no one did a thing. Everyone from the police to his management covered up for Oscar.”