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Reactions: South African residents react to Oscar Pistorius' sentencing

By Allsports.com.gh
Sports News Reactions: South African residents react to Oscar Pistorius' sentencing
OCT 21, 2014 LISTEN

The Paralympic champion shot his girlfriend dead in the early hours of February 14, 2013 but has maintained since that he mistook her for an intruder in their Pretoria home.

He was imprisoned on Tuesday after being found guilty of culpable homicide in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

After the sentence was announced, South Africans took to radio, television and social media to express their feelings about the outcome.

On talk radio station 702, many callers expressed outrage at the sentence with one telling the station: "I am angry. He should have been guilty of murder. He fired four shots into poor Reeva Steenkamp and has gotten away with it."

Outside the court, African National Congress Women's League spokesperson Jacqui Mofokeng told reporters she was "saddened" by the judgement and called on the prosecutors to appeal the sentence.

"We are saddened by the judgment... we have never been happy with the conviction of culpable homicide, instead of murder," she said.

"We call for the national prosecutions to appeal this sentence... and do it for our society."

The public outrage at the light sentence was at odds with the reaction from the Steenkamp family and friends, who seemed content with the outcome.

Ms Steenkamp's best friend and flatmate Gina Meyers told reporters outside the court: "Today was about justice being done.

"Nothing is going to bring Reeva back and this will never leave us but we are one step closer to closure."

After the sentencing, Ms Steenkamp's parents each simply declared themselves happy to see the case closed.

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