Reeva’s parents plead for the truth

Has Oscar Pistorius told the truth about what happened on the day he shot dead former Gqeberha model and law student Reeva Steenkamp? Her parents don’t think so. And it is this, not knowing what really occurred on that fateful Valentine’s Day in 2013 which ended in their daughter’s violent death, that makes it so difficult for them to close the door on the tragedy and find some form of peace.

“Please, please, tell the truth,” an ailing Barry Steenkamp pleaded in a letter read out at the former paralympian’s parole hearing at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre on Friday.

Though parole was denied because, according to a correctional services spokesperson, Pistorius has not yet served his minimum sentence, he will be given a new hearing in August 2024.

Barry and his wife, June, are broken people, tormented for the past 10 years by their belief that Pistorius has not been honest about why he shot Reeva.

No-one who has not lost a child to violence can imagine the turmoil, the pain, the unanswered questions that roil their lives every day.

While June travelled to the medium-security prison in Pretoria for the hearing, where she made it very clear to the parole board that she was strongly against Pistorius’s release, Barry was too frail to do so and sat waiting anxiously at home to hear the outcome.

June also believes Pistorius is not truly remorseful. Pistorius may have told the truth — we don’t know. He is the only person who knows what drove him to pick up a gun and fire through the locked bathroom door at a terrified, cowering Reeva.

We can only hope that, if he hasn’t done so already, his conscience will eventually get the better of him and he will tell Reeva’s parents why he took their daughter’s life. They need to know the truth if they are to have closure.