Oscar Pistorius received an appropriate sentence for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and received fair treatment by the South Africa courts, said world-famous human rights lawyer George Bizos.
“You cannot stop people from expressing their opinions about the correctness of a judgement, but to let justice be done, it cannot depend on public opinion.” George Bizios
The case of the charismatic disabled athlete, who shot his girlfriend through the bathroom door of his flat thinking she was an intruder, drew massive international media attention.
Last Tuesday, High Court judge Thokozile Masipe sentenced Pistorius to a five-year jail term. His lawyers want him to serve 10 months in jail and serve the rest under house arrest. As with her finding that Pistorius was not guilty of murder but the lesser charge of culpable homicide, Masipe’s sentence drew a lot of criticism for its leniency.
“I think it is a proper sentence in the circumstances,” said Bizos, who is no stranger to show trials. The Greek-born lawyer is credited with saving the late Nelson Mandela and key figures of the African National Congress from hanging when Bizos represented at what was in 1964 the “trial of the century”. The Rivonia Treason Trial was played out to far higher stakes – the soul of a nation. It was the opening shot in a titanic struggle to end racial discrimination through the policy of apartheid and bring about true democracy in South Africa. It galvanised world opinion against the white minority government.
Journalists, academics and diplomats converged on Johannesburg for the trial and marvelled at the dignity and determination of Mandela and his fellow defendants.
The accused men knew they would be found guilty and could face the death penalty but were determined to use the trial to state their case to the world. Bizos provided crucial advice on how Mandela should deliver his statement. Instead of being hanged, Mandela received a life sentence of which he was to serve 26 years. He was released in 1990 to head negotiations that paved the way for real democracy in 1994, the year that Mandela was elected the first president in free and fair elections for all South Africans, not just the white minority.
The media frenzy of the Pistorius case is a melodrama that echoes the OJ Simpson murder trial of the 1990s. The case, coming as it did in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal, represented another fallen sports hero.
There was a massive outcry when Masipa found Pistorius was guilty of culpable homicide not murder. Some even threatened to kill the judge and a security team was assigned to protect her.
Bizos sees nothing wrong with the verdict or with the South African justice system.
“The (Pistorius) trial was conducted by a very experienced and solid judge. There was no direct evidence that he actually knew he was shooting at his girlfriend. To convict somebody of a charge of murder, you have to have direct evidence – rarely on circumstantial evidence will there be a verdict of wilful murder,” said Bizos.
“The circumstantial evidence actually proved that he knew he was shooting at a person and the probability was that that person would be killed and he (Pistorius) should have known that. That is culpable homicide which attracts a sentence of less than 15 years.”
The interest in the case was so high that court proceedings were broadcast live, the first time this has been done in South Africa.
“You cannot stop people from expressing their opinions about the correctness of a judgement, but to let justice be done, it cannot depend on public opinion,” said Bizos.
Whatever the public controversies that the Pistorius case has generated, Bizos said South Africa’s judicial system is in very good hands.
“We appeal to people to not be too judgemental in the application of justice. We are very proud of our (South African) judges and the manner in which the justice system is worked,” he added.
“South Africa offers constitutional tolerance and is made up of a multicultural community. We are united in our diversity and support unity in our country. The communities and tribes should be proud of who they are.”
Bizos is proud of his Greek roots. He was born in Vasiltsi, south of Kalamata, in 1928.
He was 14 when the Nazi invasion of Greece took place. His father, Antoni, took George and seven New Zealander soldiers on a caique to cross the Aegean to Crete. Before they could get there, they were picked up by an English warship that took them to Alexandria.
Father and son were then taken to South Africa.
He studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and it was there that he met the young Mandela and formed a lifelong friendship that survived the turmoil of the apartheid years in South Africa.
“I was accused of being a traitor to the government, to the count. I was refused citizenship twice and I did not have a passport for over 30 years but I did what I thought was right.
“There were people who thought that my actions brought the Greek community into disrepute. I am pleased to say that those who were against me then are now very generously congratulating me on the stand that I took during the apartheid years.”
Some were not happy when, in the 1960s, he was chosen to be the founding chairman of the Greek school in Johannesburg, Saheti (short for the South African Hellenic Educational and Technical Institute) but he won over the doubters and the school was built and flourished.
Today the 1,262 pupils also absorb other aspects of Greek culture and the Greek ethos.
“I tell people I have ‘two Ithacas’ (an allusion to the Cavafy poem Ithaca) … Greece and South Africa. They ask me who would I support in a soccer match and I say I would shout for both and hope for a draw.”
Such was their friendship that Mandela tasked Bizos to be the executor of his will and a trustee of his estate. However, his role is being challenged by the late president’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and two of his daughters.
“Some of it is gossipy. They have claims we don’t want to discuss in any detail other than we are administering the estate in accordance with a will which was written by Mr Mandela. The will has been made public and we stick to it. We don’t want to deal with some of the ‘objections’ that certain members of the family have because we don’t want to have a press war about it,” said Bizos.