Scathing Reactions to Pistorius Sentence -- Media Watch

(ATR) South Africa President Jacob Zuma criticized the defense team for Oscar Pistorius on Tuesday, after the Paralympian was sentenced to five years in jail for the 2013 shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp.

According to a report onThe Guardian in Pretoria, Zuma said, "[Pistorius'] disability was no basis for him to escape prison time."

Media monitoring group ROi Africa says, "The sentencing of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was the biggest news story in the world on Tuesday.

"Pistorius's trial, across all media (social, print and web), made up 82.3 percent, while Ebola made up 17.7 percent."

Wits School of Law Professor Stephen Tuson speaks with the Mail & Guardian, a South African weekly newspaper, about the sentence delivered on Tuesday for Oscar Pistorius."The number ‘five years’ was not an ordinary number. It was carefully selected," Tuson says.

The Mail & Guardian points out thatSection 276 of South Africa's Criminal Procedure Act allows for one-sixth of a jail sentence to be converted to house arrest if the sentence does not exceed five years.Pistorius could spend only 10 months in prison.

"That is why it was carefully chosen," Tuson explains.

The National Freedom Party Youth Movement (NFPYM), a newly established political party in South Africa, said in a statement released on Tuesday, "Oscar deserved life imprisonment.

"We all know that Pistorius shed crocodile tears each time he had a chance to do so.

"He knew exactly that he murdered an innocent woman who had a bright future ahead of her because of his insecurities."

The Inkatha Freedom Party Women's Brigade, based in South Africa, hopes Pistorius will serve all five years of his sentence in jail."He should serve the sentence associated with such a crime before he can be released," the organization's chairperson said in a statement on Tuesday. "Those guilty of killing must be subjected to serve their full sentence without parole."

Tebogo Monama and Sapa, columnists for South Africa's Daily News, report on the reaction of Reeva Steenkamp's family to Pistorius' sentence."Leaving the court on Tuesday, Barry Steenkamp (Reeva's father) said he was happy," Monama and Sapa write.June Steenkamp, Reeva's mother, said, "She is dead so we cannot have closure."

Greg Nicolson, a reporter for South Africa's Daily Maverick, provides an in-depth account of sentencing in the Pistorius trial. "The world's press is back," Nicolson says as he describes the atmosphere outside the North Gauteng High CourtTuesday morning. "Photographers and cameramen line the entrance on cascading shelves of ladders."

Nicolson captures every moment of Tuesday's proceedings from the early arrival of the Steenkamps, to Pistorius' farewell to family and friends after his sentencing.

Last week, Daily Maverick columnistRanjeni Munusamy issued a scathing commentary on the Pistorius trial. "All of it, the drama, the tragedy, the showmanship, his spectacular fall from grace, the gallantry of carrying and crying over a bloodied corpse, the fake devastation, showed how he is better than the rest of us.

"The conclusion of the sentencing procedure is probably not the last we will hear of and see our champ as an appeals process is sure to ensue.

"He will continue to contaminate and assault the national consciousness with his charmed existence."

Compiled byNicole Bennett

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