Year of disgrace for sports icons
IF THE lives of Hansie Cronje and Oscar Pistorius have taught us anything, it’s that a sporting hero’s fall can come about far more rapidly than his rise.
Both these men became national heroes for their sporting excellence and their capacity to inspire pride, but their success was stripped away nearly overnight as they stood accused of crimes.
In 2015 a number of former and current athletes joined their ranks.
● Disgraced tennis ace Bob Hewitt was convicted in March of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault in the Johannesburg High Court and sentenced to an effective six years behind bars.
Though Hewitt is not a household name born-frees may be familiar with, he snatched up a number of doubles tennis grand slam titles in his heyday.
At the age of 75, his transgressions finally caught up with him when three women told of how he had sexually abused them when coaching them in tennis.
Hewitt, who maintains his innocence, has launched an appeal against his conviction and sentence at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
● Former South African and international boxing champion Thabo Sonjica was found guilty this year of raping a 15-year-old girl.
The regional court in East London heard that he attacked the girl in a shack. Neighbours testified to hearing her screams.
Sonjica, who is out on bail pending sentencing proceedings in February, had a fight scheduled last week despite his guilty verdict but in the end he did not fight.
● An accomplice of Hansie Cronje in the 2000 cricket match-fixing scandal has again found himself in trouble with the law. Former Proteas batsman Herschelle Gibbs was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after he was allegedly involved in a crash in Camps Bay more than a year ago.
Gibbs failed to appear in a Cape Town court last month because he was out of the country. The case is currently on the desk of the Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions who must decide whether to proceed with the prosecution, Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said.
Gibbs, who checked into rehab for alcohol abuse in 2008, was arrested for driving drunk in the same year but the charges were later withdrawn.
● Those who had hoped that the courts had seen the last of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, had best brace themselves.
Pistorius, whose culpable homicide conviction was recently converted to that of murder by the SCA, will appeal to the Constitutional Court.
Pistorius murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his luxury Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Though criminal lawyers have warned that Pistorius’s chances of success are slim, the athlete has said in court papers that he believes his appeal will succeed.
If it does not, Pistorius will return to the high court in Pretoria for Judge Thokozile Masipa to sentence him.
● Despite the police’s repeated promises throughout the year that arrests were imminent in the investigation into the late Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa’s murder, no one was charged with the crime during 2015. The man was who was arrested last year (2014) for the crime was cleared by the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court due to insufficient evidence.
Zamokuhle Mbatha was released on November 11 last year and said he plans to sue the police and the NPA for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution. —