Pretoria - South African paralympic star, Oscar Pistorius, who is standing accused of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, has been remanded in police holding cells.
His bail application in the Pretoria Magistrates Court will reconvene tomorrow at 9am. He will be kept at the Brooklyn police holding cells.
Earlier, Magistrate Desmond Nair said Pistorius’s murder charge was to be treated as a schedule six category offence. This is a section of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) which deals with extremely serious offences.
Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula said in a statement on Tuesday the nation was still shocked by the Valentine’s Day murder.
“We are once again shocked because none of our sporting heroes and heroines should be associated with such acts of violence against woman and children in our society.
“We live in a world where we seek to build role models who can be exemplary to our society and youth. For that Oscar has been our torch bearer and an international icon who stood against human rights abuses,” he said.
Mbalula, however, urged the nation to uphold the principles of the constitutional democracy and jurisprudence.
“We want to re-iterate that no one is above the law and we call on our people to uphold the principle of presumption of innocence until proven otherwise by the court of law.”
Steenkamp’s family held a private funeral ceremony in her home town of Port Elizabeth today. - SAnews.gov.za
