One Tragic Night (9 page)

Samantha has to stretch to find a flaw when asked. The only fault she can think of is Reeva's eyebrows – fortunately, Samantha owned her own beauty salon and has a talent for manicuring brows. ‘I always used to sit there and look and she'd be like, “Oh my God, are you looking at my eyebrows again?” and I'd say, “Yes, please can we sort those out?”'

But when pushed, Samantha also concedes that Reeva could be pedantic and slothful. ‘She would be like, “Oh my God, we've only got 25 kilometres to go, we need to fill up” and you could drive another whole day on that! And then she
would freak out, “No, Sam, we have to fill up!” She was also a creature of habit. She'd come and sleep at my house and we would get up and have a piece of toast with peanut butter and a cup of tea. She liked to chill.' Samantha flips between present and past tense when describing her friend's idiosyncrasies.

‘She doesn't like to be rushed in the morning. I think that's the one thing that irritated me sometimes is if I wanted to get up and go, if I wanted to go somewhere early, or “Let's get up and go for an early breakfast before work” – she would say, “No, no, no, no. Let's not do anything early.”'

Reeva was passionate about women's rights and was particularly vocal about sexual abuse – so much so that after her death her parents announced they would be starting a foundation for abused women in her honour.

Reeva's own Twitter timeline reflected her compassion and concern for those who had suffered and made particular reference to the brutal rape and murder of 17-year-old Anene Booysen in Bredasdorp in the Western Cape. Four days before Reeva was killed she posted a graphic of a man's hand silencing a screaming woman on her Instagram feed:

Reeva had had her own negative experience while living in Port Elizabeth, as she recounted to ZAlebs in her final interview:

Fun and frivolous, Reeva wasn't looking for anything serious in her private life, having just come out of a five-year relationship with Warren. She was more focused on advancing her career – but it didn't hurt when she had a brief fling with professional rugby player and Blue Bulls heartthrob Francois Hougaard. She met the 24-year-old tattooed scrumhalf in early 2012 and the relationship didn't last long before fizzling out.

‘I definitely think there was like a bit of a spark, but I know for a fact that she wasn't looking for anything. They saw each other for a few months and I think eventually they said, “Are we taking this to the next level or aren't we?”' explains Sam.

But iMessages between Reeva and a friend tell a slightly different story – one of a young woman confused and unsure of where she stood with the rugby star. On 30 October 2012 a friend said in an iMessage that she had asked Hougaard what was happening between him and Reeva: ‘So he gave me a weird look and his reply was that you guys are only friends. He emphasised the friends part … I think just from this response I can tell he doesn't want a committed relationship sister … He told him if that is the case, then he MUST tell you. He cannot hold you on a line. It is not fair to you and I do not want to see either one of you hurt from this … you are GOOD FRIENDS and should not loose each other.'

The state of affairs with Hougaard was weighing heavily on the model. ‘This thing is making me ill. I just don't get why 2 people can't have fun together just cos of who we are it's fucked up and I don't care that he's 24,' she said as response in an iMessage.

Messages show that Reeva spoke to Hougaard on the evening of 30 October. She explained how she felt and how they should proceed with their relationship. She discussed this with her friend the next morning.

‘We are just going to be the friends we started off being and that's amazing because right now we both need that! I had an amazing 4 months of romance and I told him if it wasn't for him I'd still be stuck in a loveless relationship,' she said.

Hougaard declined requests by us to be interviewed about his relationship with Reeva.

In the meantime, Reeva was on the cusp of local stardom – and yet, according to her closest friend, Samantha, she never became arrogant or big-headed. In a country where being a television continuity presenter or featuring in magazines' gossip pages is equated with being ‘famous', Reeva was edging towards her goal.

‘She knew what she was capable of, but she was very, very down to earth. She worked really hard at it. She was always thinking about the next step and what she needed to do and where she wanted to be,' insists Samantha. ‘It wasn't just like, “I want to get married and have kids.” Once she started modelling, she realised she had a talent and she could actually go somewhere with it.'

Gina remembers how Reeva could sense that her future was about to change. A couple of weeks before Reeva's death, Gina received a message from her predicting a shift. ‘She said to me, “Gi, our lives are about to change, I can feel it.” She was excited about life, especially because there was so much that was about to happen for her and she could feel it. She had just joined new management and
all she could talk about was how excited she was about the new things and the new adventures and the possibilities that were coming along with it. Huge things were happening for her and she was happy about it.'

Then, in November 2012, Reeva climbed a notch higher on the celebrity ladder when she was selected to feature in a local reality TV show called
Tropika Island of Treasure.
The series, filmed on location in Jamaica, sees celebrities and ordinary people compete in remote, exotic locations in a variety of daily challenges to win R1 million.

Samantha says this was the direction Reeva was looking towards. ‘She was really keen on getting into TV presenting, I think
Top Billing
would have been a goal for her. Especially after she did
Tropika Island.
That was good exposure for her.'

Local celebrity guru Jennifer Su told
City Press
newspaper that the last time she saw Reeva, they had spoken about her plans for the future: ‘I was having dinner with Reeva and Oz very recently after an event. I've never seen Oz look so happy like that night. Reeva is beautiful beyond words in a naturally sexy way – and she asked me about TV presenting. She was interested in branching out beyond
FHM
and modelling, and to do more TV work. We made a lunch date for next week where I was going to take her to the studio and make some introductions.'

It was at a Daytona Group corporate ‘track day' at the Kyalami Race Track towards the last quarter of 2012, that Reeva met Oscar Pistorius properly. Reeva had been invited to the event by Samantha and the Paralympian was there as a guest of Sam's boyfriend, Justin. The two men share a passion for fast cars and Oscar was in the process of purchasing a McLaren from the Daytona Group. The car, valued at R3.5 million, was a gift to himself for Christmas following what he called a ‘good year'. Samantha and Justin were both friendly with the athlete, who had been to their house for dinner and they saw each other socially. Samantha was impressed by how well-mannered and kind Oscar was, considering his fame and status. ‘I thought he was great guy. I'd still say I'd never come across a guy who was so well-mannered in this day and age. Polite, considerate. I thought he was a lot of fun. I thought he was a great guy, that's why I hung out with him. I didn't see anything … I was never in a situation where I thought to myself, you know, this guy is cooked.'

By the first week of November 2012, Oscar's relationship status was already complicated. He and his girlfriend Samantha Taylor had just returned from a weekend away at the Sun City resort. Taylor later testified in court that there was ‘a lot of commotion' in the relationship at the time. She did not, however, consider what had transpired between them at Sun City to be a break-up. The
true extent of the problems in the relationship would only be revealed to us after the trial had been completed.

Oscar opted not to take Samantha Taylor as his date to the South African Sports Awards. But he did need a date – and it was Justin who suggested he take Reeva. On the afternoon of the event, 4 November, Justin called up his girlfriend's friend and asked her if she would accompany Oscar to the awards. ‘Justin phoned Reeva and asked, “Do you want to go to the Sports Awards tonight?” She said, “Uh … in like an hour's time? But okay.” She scraped her hair back, put a dress on and went,' recalls Sam.

Much-publicised photographs of the couple on the red carpet belie the lastminute request and any accompanying awkwardness – Reeva, statuesque in a cascading tasselled peach dress with shoestring straps and her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, beams as she glances up into the athlete's smiling eyes.

That night Reeva told
City Press
newspaper, ‘We're just friends. I promise I'll tell you if there's anything more … It's just a coincidence that we're sitting at the same table and arrived in the same car.' She also told an interviewer on the red carpet: ‘Oscar is a very, very sexy boy. He doesn't do it in an arrogant, obnoxious way. He does it in a very classy, understated way. He's a gentleman.'

‘The next day,' says Sam, ‘she was like, “Jeez, what an amazing guy.” She said, “We sat and spoke for hours, we liked the same things, he seems like a lot of fun.” I was very happy for her!' but Samantha adds that Reeva was worried about Oscar's youthfulness. ‘She said, though, that he's very mature for his age. Obviously with what he's had to deal with and being in the public eye since he was so young. You know, achieving what he's achieved, he must be more mature for his age.'

Inconveniently, Oscar was friends with Reeva's ex-fling Francois Hougaard, and she had to tread carefully as she entered into this new relationship. Her dalliance with the rugby player had also prepared her for dating a celebrity. ‘I think it might have been a little bit overwhelming in the beginning, but she had been with Francois before. I know she wasn't chasing the limelight but I think she quite liked it. She liked what he was well known for. He wasn't an actor or a model or something like that, he's achieved a lot.'

Hougaard soon found out about the Sports Awards, and the next day Reeva had to deal with the fallout, despite the pair calling it quits just days earlier. The model discussed her concerns with a friend in an iMessage: ‘My gosh I'm trying to sort out so much shit now. Hougi is so fucken upset about yesterday with oz and it was so innocent I was just trying to help:(I don't know who told him in such a shit way he has such a big tour going on its not a joke and Oscar told him it was last minute and made sure it was ok! People are interfering and stupid.'

In another message, Reeva told a friend: ‘I was a last option. I think after Tropika filming I'm giving up on this career I can't have this kind of negativity and games and people stabbing each other in the back.' Despite what Oscar had told Reeva, Taylor would later dispute this both in court and in an interview with us.

While the friend tried to be understanding, she offered a view from Hougaard's side and how he might have perceived the situation. ‘Hmmmm….. Probably a huge misunderstanding but maybe you should have thought it through before agreeing to do it – even if you wanted to help him out. Also not sure why he asked you if he had Justin and all those boys that could attend or even his brother or sister. It was a massive event with people from the sports industry, with media present, nothing unfortunately will be a secret. I don't blame him [Hougaard] for being upset.'

But Reeva nevertheless asserted her independence and made it clear that she no longer had any attachment to the rugby player: ‘I went. I had fun and I have no regrets! No one else could go! I can guarantee u he would've asked u if u were at track day that's how chilled it was. Hougi made a fool of me the last few weeks and has no claim over me! I'm 29 and I make my own decisions I won't let anyone make me feel like this!'

Samantha doesn't believe that Reeva began dating Oscar for the wrong reasons and she never felt any discomfort or had any qualms about his so-called disability and the fact that he wore prosthetics.

‘I asked her and she said she doesn't even notice. I said to her, “Is it inhibiting in any way?” I mean, everyone is wondering it, it's just I asked it. She said no and that makes me feel like she really cared for him and she completely overlooked all of that. I think for other girls that were in it just for the fame, they would force themselves to be okay with it, but I know for a fact that it wasn't an issue for her at all.'