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Oscar Pistorius sighted a year after his release on parole

Oscar Pistorius sighted a year after his release on parole

Independent3 days ago

Oscar Pistorius, convicted of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, participated in a Triathlon in Durban a year after his parole release.
Pistorius competed in the Ironman 70.3 competition, reportedly with permission from his parole officer, according to Netwerk24.
An attorney for Pistorius, Conrad Dormehl, confirmed his participation in the Durban race.
Singabakho Nxumalo of the Department of Correctional Services is investigating whether Pistorius had the necessary permission to compete, as it would require approval for inter-district travel.
Pistorius, known as 'Blade Runner,' was released on parole in January 2024 after serving over half his sentence for the 2013 murder of Steenkamp and is on parole until 2029; he finished 555th overall and third in the 'physically challenged' category in the Triathlon.

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Heartache turns to hope as South Africa seek to shake ‘chokers' tag in WTC final
Heartache turns to hope as South Africa seek to shake ‘chokers' tag in WTC final

The Guardian

time10 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Heartache turns to hope as South Africa seek to shake ‘chokers' tag in WTC final

A South African cricket fan's standout World Cup catastrophe will depend on when they were born. Baby boomers cite the time, back in 1992, when Brian McMillan was left needing 22 runs off one ball after rain in Sydney washed away any hope of a chase. Millennials are forever haunted by Alan Donald's dropped bat in that tied semi-final in 1999. Gen Zs must still be wondering how Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller failed to get over the line with 30 needed off as many balls in last year's T20 final. The Proteas choking when it matters most is a tale as old as the country itself. Longer, in fact, if you consider that Nelson Mandela was elected president two years after this story began. And throughout it all, one antagonist has loomed largest. Australia have swung the axe on multiple occasions, as they did in 1999, 2007 and 2023. More often they were merely winning, providing a stark contrast to the misery felt across the Indian Ocean. There have been some moments to savour as a South African, like the famous '438-game' at the Wanderers in 2006. And three consecutive Test series wins down under between 2009 and 2017, as well as the home victory during the 'sandpapergate' series in 2018, banished lingering insecurities in whites. But there's an itch that's yet to be scratched. Every other major cricket nation has claimed a world title. Graeme Smith spearheaded a dynastic Test team that included Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla. This group, perhaps the third greatest of all time behind the all-conquering West Indians and Australians before them, claimed two Test maces. Had there been a World Test Championship 15 years ago this column wouldn't exist. As it stands, a proper trophy lift followed by a ticker-tape parade has remained elusive. This is why this one-off Test against Australia means so much to South Africa supporters. Forget the broader narratives around 'big-three' takeovers, ICC ineptitude or the fungal encroachment of white-ball franchise leagues. We just want to feel what everyone else has felt. This nation has given so much to the game. There's a good chance your national or domestic team benefits from South African-made muscle. Don't we deserve even a morsel from the feast? 'We want it a lot,' Proteas skipper, Temba Bavuma, told Guardian Australia recently. 'For the team, for myself, for the coach, for the country, that is something we really want. Maybe there is desperation around it. We don't need to squirt around that. But it's from a healthy point of view. It's not do or die.' Thank goodness for that, otherwise South African lawyers would be inundated with requests to write up last wills and testaments. Because no matter how much they want it, and how much we need it, the inarguable truth is that South Africa start this match as outsiders. Their coach, Shukri Conrad, dismissed that suggestion when he said, 'South Africans should never be considered underdogs'. But they are. Even a tight win for Australia would exceed most realistic expectations. Could this work in South Africa's favour? The mental skills coach and former England spinner, Jeremy Snape, defines choking as, 'losing from a winning position, or losing a game you should win, as a result of psychological pressures and the weight of expectation'. Well, that's great news. Maybe now they can go out there and throw a few punches. Kagiso Rabada has an average of 23 with the ball against Australia. Aiden Markram averages 60 with the bat. It only takes a handful of players to win a Test. What if, unburdened by presumption, South Africa rise to the occasion and pull off something miraculous? Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Oh god, I'm doing it, aren't I? I'm starting to hope. I'm starting to wonder how I might walk as a South African without King Kong sitting on my back, how I might breathe without the 'chokers' tag constricting my air-flow. I'm starting to look back at all those heartaches and gaffs and tears in the rain and wonder if this was all part of some cosmic plan. If the lemons I've been forced to suck were palate cleansers for what's to come. I asked Bavuma if his team could do for the country what the Springboks rugby side have done by winning four World Cups. If lifting that mace would bring him his 'Siya Kolisi moment', where a Black man representing a fractured country could provide even the suggestion of unity through sporting triumph. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. My concerns are far more parochial now. Because speaking as a long-suffering South African, one with traumatic memories that stretch across generations, I simply want this for me. I know I'm not the only one.

Lack of test preparation no bother for South Africa head of WTC final
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Lack of test preparation no bother for South Africa head of WTC final

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The six-year-old albino boy whose hand was hacked off by his FATHER to make potions for witchdoctors in Tanzania
The six-year-old albino boy whose hand was hacked off by his FATHER to make potions for witchdoctors in Tanzania

Daily Mail​

time14 hours ago

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The six-year-old albino boy whose hand was hacked off by his FATHER to make potions for witchdoctors in Tanzania

A band of armed men storm into the house of a six-year-old boy in the dead of night. They knock his terrified mother unconscious before bursting into the child's bedroom, hauling him from his cot and pinning him to the ground. Then one member of the group - the boy's own father - steps forward with a machete and mercilessly swings it down to sever the boy's hand. They gleefully make off with the body part, leaving the child screaming and bleeding in his empty bedroom. No, this is not the plot of a Stephen King novel or a skin-crawling horror film. This is the lived experience of Baraka Cosmas Lusambo, one of hundreds of people with albinism (PWAs) across Central and East Africa who became unwilling organ donors at the hands of people who believe their body parts can cure afflictions or bring good fortune. Albinos - sometimes referred to as 'the invisibles' - have historically suffered appalling treatment in parts of the African continent. Not long ago, albino babies were routinely killed at birth, thought by their parents to be bad omens or curses. Today, infanticide has largely declined, but many PWAs are born with a price tag on their head. Even people born without albinism but with particularly fair skin and eyes risk a similar fate. Last week, the guilty verdict handed down last week to a South African woman who sold her bright-eyed daughter to a witch doctor in February 2024 renewed focus on the dark trade of human trafficking and the targeting of young children for profit. But PWAs like Baraka are ever more susceptible to the deplorable practice. There are countless horror stories across East and Central African nations of albino children and adults alike being butchered - sometimes by their own relatives - and their remains used in macabre concoctions. Bones are ground down and buried in the earth by miners, who believe they will be transformed into diamonds. The genitals are made into treatments to bolster sexual potency, and their hair is woven into fishermen's nets. Nowhere are these practices more rife than Tanzania, where roughly one in 1,400 people are born with albinism - the highest incidence of the condition anywhere in the world. In Baraka's case, his injuries came about after a 17-person-strong gang led by his father, Cosmas Lusambo, and his uncle stormed into his house and hacked off his hand with a machete. His lower leg was also badly injured in the attack but doctors were able to save it. The group reportedly sold the child's bloodied and battered body part on the open market for $5,000 - a huge sum in a country where the average wage in 2016 was the equivalent of $157 per month. Though Baraka will contend with the trauma for the rest of his life, reports about his vile ordeal caught the eye of the Global Medical Relief Fund, a charity started by Staten Island woman Elissa Montanti in 1997 to help young people from crisis zones get custom prostheses. Baraka was one of five Tanzanian children treated in the US for their injuries sustained when they were attacked for their body parts Montanti reached out to Under the Same Sun, a Canada-based group that advocates for and protects people with albinism in Tanzania that sheltered Baraka following the attack in March 2015. When Montanti asked if she could help him, the group said four more children who had been attacked for their organs were in need of care, and pleaded with the charity founder to consider providing new limbs for them as well. Montanti agreed and brought all five to live for the summer at her charity's home on Staten Island, while they underwent the process of getting fitted for and learning to use prostheses about two hours away at Philadelphia Shriners Hospital for Children. The cohort of kids spent five months of 2015 from June to October living with Montanti while undergoing prostheses fitting and rehabilitation at the hospital in Philadelphia. Between trips to the hospital, Montanti filled their summer with trips to various American landmarks, swimming pools, and the beach - activities that could have proven lethal in their native Tanzania. Montanti said at the time the children had become like her adopted kids, and that she had grown especially close to Baraka. 'They're not getting their arms back,' she said. 'But they are getting something that is going to help them lead a productive life and be part of society and not be looked upon as a freak or that they are less than whole.' The group of five children, including Baraka, returned to Tanzania in October 2015 and were looked after in secure sheltered accommodation in the city of Dar es Salaam. But they made frequent trips to and from Staten Island for new prostheses to accommodate their growing bodies. Baraka is now 16 years old. Montanti told MailOnline that he and his friends will return to Staten Island once again in August this year. Albinism is a condition caused by a genetic mutation that strips the skin, hair and eyes of pigment created by melanin, a substance that also acts as a shield against the sun's harmful ultraviolet light. The lack of protective melanin comes with heightened risks of skin cancer and vision loss for those exposed to the sun. Those born with it can generally live long, healthy lives provided they are appropriately looked after as children and have the provisions to protect themselves as adults. Unfortunately, this is not often the case in large parts of Africa. More than 90% of people with albinism on the continent, where roughly one out of every 5,000 people is born with the condition, die before they reach the age of 40 due to health complications brought on by sun exposure. In rural areas, PWAs are sometimes banned from working or going to school and are isolated by their communities - a move that makes them all the more vulnerable to bounty hunters, traffickers, witch doctors and impoverished citizens with nowhere else to turn. One of the most dangerous myths is that having sex with an albino can cure HIV. That belief has driven an epidemic of sexual violence against albino women, many of whom contract the virus as a result. PWAs are hunted, murdered, and dismembered. Children are kidnapped from their families, or in some cases sold off by willing parents desperate for money. Even in death, they are not safe. Grave robbers are known to desecrate the graves of PWAs to steal their bones. As attacks on PWAs became more widely reported after the turn of the century, governments and judiciaries have taken some steps to reduce the violence. In 2009, a Tanzanian court handed out death sentences to three men who were convicted of abducting and butchering 14-year-old albino boy Matatizo Dunia - the first time capital punishment was handed out for such a crime. The attackers broke into Dunia's home and dragged him out of his bed before hacking him to pieces. One was reportedly found holding his severed leg while the boy's dismembered corpse was discovered dumped in scrubland. But there are thought to be dozens if not hundreds of cases of attacks on PWAs that go uninvestigated or unreported altogether, and critics say many governments - including that of Tanzania - are doing little to change the violent trend. In February, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) delivered a landmark judgment against the Tanzanian government after civil rights groups successfully argued officials were committing human rights violations by failing to prosecute attacks against PWAs. The ruling decreed that the government must launch a years-long public awareness campaign, criminalise attacks against PWAs and increase healthcare provisions for albinos those with skin and eye problems. It came after the UN last year condemned Tanzanian authorities for their failure to condemn and investigate attacks against PWAs after examining multiple cases of mutilation which were either not investigated, or had prosecutions withdrawn. It remains to be seen whether the ACHPR's ruling will have any effect on the Tanzanian government's policies, given that there is no official method to enforce the court's decisions. Tanzania is just one of several nations where violence against PWAs is rife. The past two decades have seen dozens of cases of PWA mutilations and killings in neighbouring Kenya, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), among others.

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