Mockery Of Justice System Or A Fair Sentence?

By Robert Nisbet, in Pretoria

At first there was bemusement and quizzical looks as people tried to compute what Judge Thokozile Masipa had delivered.

Dozens of bystanders had gathered around TV monitors and satellite trucks to hear the summary, delivered quietly and methodically by the 67-year-old judge.

Gradually it sank in that Oscar Pistorius had been sentenced to jail, and would be serving a maximum of five years behind bars for culpable homicide.

Overwhelmingly the reaction on the streets was negative.

One man grabbed the barrel of our camera to have his say: "It's too light. He took the soul of another person. How can that be right? He's a murderer."

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This was a view replicated across Madiba Street which separates the North Gauteng High Court from the Palace of Justice where this drama has played out.

One ex-offender who now works for prison reform stood outside the gates, dressed symbolically in chains and an orange jumpsuit.

"It makes a mockery of the justice system," he told me.

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"I was sentenced to five and a half years in jail for robbery and yet the rich man, the famous man gets less than that for killing a totally innocent woman."

Two people told us that they thought it was a fair sentence given his disability, but they were shouted down by others.

But the most supportive message was scrawled on a bus stop.

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