Sunday, March 23, 2025

February 18, 2025

Oscar Pistorius’ Comeback: New Mansion, New Life, And A Look-Alike Love

Oscar Pistorius was a 'shadow of himself' after being released from prison but appears to be living a rather lush life now.

[Image: Flickr]

Oscar Pistorius was a ‘shadow of himself’ after being released from prison but appears to be living a rather lush life considering his ruthless crime.

It has been 12 years since the South African athlete shot and killed his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013, and now he seems to have new digs and a new squeeze.

Pistorius claimed for a long time that the four hollow-point bullets he shot through a bathroom door in the early hours were aimed at a possible intruder. After initially being charged with manslaughter, he was then charged with murder in 2015.

Last year, Pistorius was released on parole from Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, so it has been 13 months of freedom.

The NZ Herald notes that in his low-key new life, the former Paralympic gold medalist is trying to live up to the message his back tattoo conveys: “I do not run like a man running aimlessly”.

Although he’s been sweeping floors at a nearby church, he’s probably found more of a sense of his old self pounding the track with his blades at his uncle’s multimillion-pound South African mansion.

“He’s working hard physically at the moment – running, in the gym and trying to get his body back into shape,” explains Mark Williams-Thomas, a detective-turned-broadcaster who remains in regular contact with Pistorius.

“Exercise has always been so important to Oscar. He knows how important it is to keep fit and stay healthy. When he came out [of prison], he was a shadow of himself. In the first early days, I would speak to him and he was just profoundly exhausted, mentally and physically.

“He is much better now.”

The oke can’t run from himself, though, no matter how much he tries.

A vast amount of his time is spent behind the massive walls of a luxurious home in Waterkloof owned by his uncle Albert, who happens to be a Donald Trump-supporting businessman. All the worst men seem to follow Trump because of his unmatched pardoning abilities.

Pistorius Sr. is fiercely protective, claiming that before Pristorius’ release, his nephew had “matured”.

Indeed, this V-Day, he appears to have a new blonde girlfriend – Rita Greyling, a business management consultant from a millionaire family who lives near Pistorius’s base.

Naturally, the Steenkamp family are at a loss, shocked at this relationship news.

Older sister Simone Cowburn reportedly said: “Is she nuts?” Steenkamp’s mother, June, has consistently said she would be “concerned for the safety of any woman” who comes into contact with him.

Rita might indeed have an early death wish.

The fact that they look uncannily similar adds a kind of creepy foreboding, too. The Herald Network created this fascinating mash-up of both Riva and Rita – Oh my goodness, even their names sound the same.

Image: Reeva Steenkamp, left, and Rita Greyling, right | Herald Network graphic

Williams-Thomas, a former Surrey police detective who remains the only broadcaster to interrogate Pistorius on camera, refuses to condemn his 2016 interviewee, offering the minority view that Pistorius deserves a chance at a “second life”.

“He will forever live with what happened to him, and he’s never shied away from that,” says Williams-Thomas. “He’s always accepted the responsibility for what he did. He took someone’s life, and he’ll live with that for the whole of his life. He remains at his uncle’s house and he’s trying to work and provide for society.”

“I have got to know Oscar and his family and friends and he is kind and genuine. He is not this dangerous, arrogant man as painted by so many, and I think we, as a society, have a duty to allow him to move on and try and live his second life as it were.”

Others close to the case will argue this Pistorius deserved punishment. Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and face of an anti-bullying campaign, was about to return to her old school to talk to girls about gender-based violence when she was killed.

Pistorius, meanwhile, faced damning accusations of controlling and abusing women. Text messages between him and Reeva painted a disturbing picture, while former girlfriend Samantha Taylor openly admitted she once feared for her life—so much so that she hid his gun after he erupted in a violent rage.

His trial only deepened the chilling narrative: a volatile, hot-tempered enigma with a taste for speed, power, and danger—fast cars, beautiful women, and deadly weapons. By the time the courtroom drama unfolded, only those in his closest circle still clung to the belief that Reeva’s death was a tragic mistake.

“I did take Reeva’s life and I have to live with that,” Pistorius told Williams-Thomas as they sat down at the same property he now lives in under his five-year parole terms. “I can smell the blood. I can feel the warmness of it on my hands. And to know that that’s your fault, that that’s what you’ve done.”

Williams-Thomas, who also fronted the ITV Exposure series that first named Jimmy Savile as a prolific paedophile, can have his opinions about the cold-blooded murderer being a good guy at heart. But what I’ve learned in my short time in this world is that there is a massive grey area between good and evil. Often, they look the same. It is up to each person to decide where their line is, and murder along with a history of abuse is definitely mine.

As a society, we are far too forgiving towards good-looking people who commit atrocious, frankly unforgivable crimes.

It is a danger to us all when that happens. Look at America.

[Source: NZ Herald]