'When you're in a bad situation, leave'

Although the motive for Reeva Steenkamp's death has yet to be determined by Judge Thokozile Masipa, countless other women have suffered attacks by their partners.

Neo Thale was among the lucky ones. She survived. Now, when she looks at herself in the mirror, she breaks down and cries.

Her body is riddled with 16 scars from bullet wounds received when her husband tried to kill her on February 13 last year - hours before the death of Steenkamp. He tried to kill her when she wanted to leave the five-year-long abusive relationship. "Had I left him sooner, I would have had a normal life," she said.

Her husband, Patrick Thale, 34, was stationed at Koster police station in North West. In February last year, she applied for a protection order against him. "I couldn't take it any more and I told him. He told me if he couldn't have me, no one else would," she said.

As she left the police station, her husband stopped his car in front of hers.

"He didn't say a word. He just got out of the car and started shooting at me. I tried to get out through the passenger side, but he just kept shooting. Then he turned the gun on himself. He died immediately."

She left Koster after the shooting and now works in Brits.

"'I've learnt that when you're in a bad situation, leave. Don't stay. It could get worse."

Last year, the Medical Research Council released a study called Intimate Partner Femicide in South Africa, comparing incidents from 1999 to 2009. There had been a slight decrease, but the 2009 level of murders of female partners was five times higher than the global average.

Professor Naeemah Abrahams, who was part of the team that conducted the study, said Steenkamp's killing had received the kind of attention other cases had not.

"Anene Booysen also passed away during the same time. Her case progressed very quickly through the courts. That is because it received a lot of local and global attention."

On Friday, Themba Khumalo sat through a lengthy presentation of factors in mitigation of sentence in the case of a 28-year-old former Woolworths employee convicted of the murder of his daughter, Zanele, 18.

The trial of Thato Kutumela was taking place next door to the Oscar Pistorius trial.

Kutumela was convicted in November last year of the murder of the part-time model, whom he had raped and strangled in her family home in Pretoria. Her father, spokesman for the Department of Water Affairs, found her body. His daughter was five months pregnant.

"She was looking forward to the baby," said Khumalo. "I was looking forward to becoming a grandfather."

Kutumela showed no remorse and the family will not be able to forgive him. "He had the audacity to come and commit such a serious crime in our home."

During argument in mitigation of sentence, the court heard that Kutumela was struggling to accept that he was found guilty.

Clinical psychologist Suzette Heath told the court: "He's not coping well. He is quite depressed and, as a result, he has a low self-esteem."

She said Kutumela did not show remorse because he insisted that he had done nothing wrong. - Additional reporting by Sabelo Skiti