Authors: Mandy Wiener
One Tragic Night (11 page)
âI tried to reason with him, stating that Charles had done this as a favour for
me
as I was a very loyal customer and he did not even know that I was coming through with two other people. He continued saying that he does not ever want to go to that Tashas again. He was then silent for the remainder of the journey and refused to eat his yoghurt ice cream. When we arrived at my house, Reeva and I went inside and Oscar stayed outside. Reeva went to put both hers and Oscar's yoghurt ice cream in the freezer (I had finished mine). I looked at Reeva and she looked at me ⦠I said to her, “Reeva, it's just yoghurt ice cream. Charles was doing
me
the favour, this is not normal behaviour!” She replied that she knows it is not normal, but Oscar is just stressed.'
Samantha reveals that Oscar's enthusiasm for firearms did not âfreak' Reeva out and she was actually proficient in handling a gun herself. Both women had been for training and regularly went to the shooting range. âIt's an interest we all have. For me, in this country, I feel like you need to actually go and learn how to handle a gun properly. And I'm not ashamed to say it. Justin and I both go for proper training with the best people that there are, because if you ever get into a situation that is violent I need to be able to use every single gun that falls in front of me and that's being responsible.
âReeva liked it more from a sport point of view. She'd been shooting with Warren before, she'd also been for training.' In fact, months before her death, Reeva posted a photograph of herself on Instagram, grasping a 9 mm pistol with both hands, her arms stretched out and her head cocked. Muffs covered her ears and protective glasses, her eyes. She wrote: âShooting games this morning! I feel less stressed now:)'
In December 2012, Justin and Samantha invited Oscar and Reeva to holiday with them in Cape Town.
âI think they had maybe had a little fallout before Christmas and Oscar came to Cape Town and he stayed with us for a few days on his own over New Year's. We went for lunch one day and Oz was saying, “Why don't I get Reeva to come down and then we all go away for a day or two?”' So Reeva flew down to the Cape and the two couples went straight to the five-star luxury Arabella resort near Hermanus. âIt was awesome; we went and lay by the pool, we drank cocktails, we went for dinner.' They returned to Cape Town and Oscar and Reeva closed themselves off at a hotel in Green Point. âI think they just wanted some time on their own.' According to Samantha, this appears to have been the turning point in their relationship. âWhen they got back to reality, from there the relationship was awesome.'
Oscar was in the process of buying a house down the road from Justin and Samantha in Atholl and it was likely that Reeva would move in with him. âShe was pretty sure that would happen. She was running around getting him all the things he needed, like a wash basket, and so on. He was meant to move in a month after it happened,' Samantha says with a sense of melancholy, perhaps a sadness at what could have been.
But the relationship was not without its problems and a deeper reflection on events shows up its more turbulent, tumultuous characteristics.
One of the more significant rows was on 27 January 2013, the day of Reeva's close friend Darren Fresco's engagement party. Gina recalls that she had asked Reeva if she could catch a lift with her and Oscar, and when the couple arrived with British athlete Martyn Rooney, Oscar was already in a foul mood. âThey were running very late. I had gone to get flowers for them just before picking me up. When I got in the car I could sense there was tension. Reeva said they'd been running late the entire morning. I said thank you to Oscar for fetching me and he was very short in saying no problem. I could definitely sense something had happened. When we parked, Oscar and Reeva walked in front while Martyn and I walked behind them. At one point Reeva let go of Oscar's hand and came to walk with us. Oscar turned around and said something along the lines of, “Are you not going to walk with me?” in quite a stern voice. She walked forward and just said to me, “I'll tell you later.” The engagement party was really nice, and at one point Reeva called me and said we were going. We got in the car, and clearly her and Oscar had just had a fight. She messaged me and said he had been like that the entire morning. When I asked what happened she said she'd tell me at home.
âHe dropped us off and drove away. She said they had had a fight because they were walking back from getting food, and Oscar stopped walking with her when she said hello to a guy friend she had known for years. He was there with his wife and child and she was saying hi. When she turned around to introduce Oscar, he was standing a metre or so behind her. Oscar got annoyed apparently and said she was flirting with him.
âThat day we had an afternoon nap. When I woke up I had missed calls from Oscar. She sent him a message about the whole thing and now he was trying to get hold of her. She said: “Gi, call back and tell him I'm sleeping.”'
WhatsApp messages between the two would later emerge in court, giving a raw and real account of the state of the relationship. Most notable was the exchange between the two following the fight at the engagement party:
Reeva:
I'm not 100% sure why I'm sitting down to type you a message first. But perhaps it says a lot about what's going on here. Today was one of my best friends engagements and I wanted to stay longer I was enjoying myself but its over now. You have picked on me incessantly since you got back from CT and I understand that you are sick but it's nasty. Yesterday wasn't nice for either of us but we managed to pull thro and communicate well enough to show our care for each other is greater than the drama that attacked us. I was not flirting with anyone today. I feel sick that u suggested that and that u made a scene at the table and made us leave early. I'm terribly disappointed in how the day ended and how u left me. We are living in a double standard relationship where u can be mad about how I deal with stuff when u are very quick to act cold and offish when you're unhappy. Every 5 seconds I hear how u dated another chick you really have dated a lot of people yet you get upset if I mention ONE funny story with a long term boyfriend. I do everything to make u happy and to not say anything to rock the boat with u. You do everything to throw tantrums in front of people. I have been upset by you for 2 days now. I'm so upset I left Darren's party early. SO upset. I can't get that day back. I'm scared of u sometimes and how u snap at me and of how u will react to me. You make me happy 90% of the time and I think we are amazing together but I am not some other bitch you may know trying to kill your vibe. I am the girl who let go with u even when I was scared out of my mind to, I'm the girl who fell in love with u and wanted to tell u this weekend. But I'm also the girl that gets side stepped when you are in a shit mood. When I feel you think u have me so why try anymore. I get snapped at and told my accents and voices are annoying. I touch your neck to show u I care you tell me to stop. Stop chewing gum. Do this don't do that. You don't want to here stuff cut me off. Your endorsements your reputation your impression of something innocent blown out of proportion and fucked up a special day to me. I'm sorry if you truly felt I was hitting on my friend Sams husband and I'm sorry that u think that little of me. From the outside I think it looks like we are a struggle and maybe that's what we are. I just want to love and be loved. Be happy and make someone SO happy. Maybe we can't do that for each other. Cos right now I know u aren't happy and I am certainly very unhappy and sad.
Oscar:
I want to talk to you, I want to sort this out.. I don't want to have
anything less than amazing for you and I.. I'm sorry for the things I say without thinking and for taking offense to some of your actions. The fact that I'm tired and sick isn't an excuse. I was upset that you just left me after we got food to go talk to a guy and I was standing tight behind you watching you touch his arm and ignore me and when I spoke up you introduced me which you could've done but when I left you just kept on chatting to him when clearly I was upset. I asked Martin to put on that kendrick lemar Album in the car and don't know it, granted that was a shut song but you could've just lent forward and whispered in my ear to change it scene I had to drive to pick up your friend. I was 30 min late and I know you don't like it when I drive fast but then you should've asked Gina to drive herself so that we wouldn't have to. When we left I was starving, the only good I'd had was a tiny wrap and everyone was leaving for lunch, I'm sorry I wanted to go but I was hungry and upset and although you knew it it wasn't like you came to chat to me when I left the table. I was upset when I left you cause I thought you were coming to me. I'm sorry I asked you to stop taping my neck yesterday, I know you were just trying to show me love.. I had a mad headache and should've just spoken to you softly. In sorry for asking you not to put on an accent last night.. Pretty much the same and didn't have the energy.
YOU
magazine also published details about arguments that occurred while the couple was on holiday in the Cape, while the
Sunday Times
reported on how the duo argued in public, on their way to the parking lot, after the Virgin Active Sport Industry Awards at Emperors Palace on 7 February.
In her statement, Gina gives more insight into the events that took place that night.
âThe night that Reeva attended the Virgin Active Awards with Oscar, I returned home from VIP at approximately 1.30am. I walked upstairs and started to lock up. Reeva's room is near the security door. I heard her talking in a slightly raised voice and repeatedly saying the word “but”. I could not hear much else. I knocked on the door, but she did not respond so I left. I then sent her a message saying, “love you Alfi, come wake me up if you need anything.” She responded immediately “omg” and then “omg you're awake. Im coming.” I replied, “lol”.
âI then walked into her room and saw that she was covered in the blanket with her hand on her face. She always fiddled with her eyebrows or something when she was frustrated. She appeared similar to the video footage of her when she drove into Oscar's complex as seen in the
Carte Blanche
programme. I cannot
remember the exact details of the fight but she told me that Oscar just wanted her to be attached to his side the whole time and if she was not, he freaked out. This occurred that evening, when they were leaving and she walked around one side of the table and he walked the other way around. He was then annoyed because she was not next to him. When she walked ahead of him, he became angry and told her that people would say that they were fighting.
âHe had a fight with her and dropped her off at home. He then called her and this was the reason why they were arguing over the phone. He eventually said he was going to sleep and they ended the conversation. She then said to me once again, “Gi, I cannot do this.”'
Reeva's WhatsApp message to Oscar that night revealed just how upset she was about the fight:
I like to believe that I make u proud when I attend these kinds of functions with u. I present myself well and can converse with others whilst u are off busy chatting to fans/friends. I also knew people there tonight and whilst u were having one or 2 pics taken i was saying goodbye to people in my industry and Fix wanted a photo with me. I was just being cordial by saying goodbye whilst u were busy. I completely understood your desperation to leave and thought I would be helping u by getting to the exit before u because I can't rush in the heels I was wearing. I thought it would make a difference in us getting out without u being harassed anymore. I didn't think you would criticize me for doing that especially not so loudly so that others could hear. I might joke around and be all Tom boyish at times but I regard myself as a lady and I didn't feel like one tonight after the way u treated me when we left. I'm a person too and I appreciate that u invited me out tonight and I realise that u get harassed but I am trying my best to make u happy and I feel as tho u sometimes never are no matter the effort I put in. I can't be attacked by outsiders for dating u AND be attacked by you, the one person I deserve protection from.
In an interview with
Heat
magazine a week before she died, Reeva spoke openly about how she worried that âlies' could ruin her fledgling relationship with the athlete. She said that while she respected and admired him, she also feared that negative publicity could harm his career: âWe haven't been talking to the media because I don't want to get it tainted. I don't want anything coming in the way of his career. He's such an amazing athlete.' She added: âYou know what they do,
they make things up, “Reeva cheats on Oscar” and rubbish like that. I wouldn't want lies about us jeopardising it. I'm trying to work on my modelling career and remove myself from the whole
FHM
stigma,' she said. âI want to be seen as a classic model.'
Gina reveals that in the last few weeks of Reeva's life, she was incredibly stressed about her career, her finances and her relationship.
âFor the last two weeks of Reeva's life, she complained on a daily basis that she felt sick. She was sick from anxiety, but said that she did not know what had caused it. She seemed really stressed. She told me that she was stressed about money for her parents and that she desperately needed to give them money but that she was also low on cash. She had so many plans for this year and they were only starting to materialise.'
Reeva's mother, June, regularly asked her daughter for money â a few hundred rand here, a thousand rand there, which Reeva duly deposited into her account.
Her death compounded the family's financial woes and left them without a source of financial assistance. On 29 June 2013, June Steenkamp told
The Daily Mail
: âOur hearts just feel broken. But we have no choice but to sue. Pistorius has placed us in this position. We are struggling financially. Reeva was helping us. On the night she died, when she was on her way to Oscar's house, we talked about her sending us money to pay our cable television bill. I was fretting because I thought I was going to miss her first TV appearance. She told me not to worry, she would send money the next day. She regularly helped us with food and utility bills.'