The potty-mouthed hit man and the squeaky sympathetic soul

19 October 2014 - 02:03 By Tymon Smith and Werner Swart
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EXPLETIVES UNDELETED: Hit man Mikey Schultz at the trial
EXPLETIVES UNDELETED: Hit man Mikey Schultz at the trial

If this was meant to be the dry and dull part of the trial before Oscar Pistorius finds out his comeuppance, the bombshells in court this week reinforced the "trial of the century" tag.

In 48 hours Pistorius will know his punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp. He may have escaped a murder conviction, but the prosecution delivered an emphatic plea for a harsh sentence after his conviction of culpable homicide.

But what really shook the trial's seasoned observers were these three incidents:

The hit man strikes a nerve:

Football bad-boy Marc Batchelor has been a regular at the murder trial, supporting Steenkamp's friends. But when his good mate Mikey Schultz - yes, the notorious hit man who snuffed out mining magnate Brett Kebble in 2005 - made his appearance, testosterone levels and sales of protein shakes around the court rose. For a few hours proceedings felt more like a matric rage afterparty than a murder trial.

The Pistorius family were not happy when Schultz sat too close to them and when Aimee Pistorius started crying, her brother Carl claimed it was because Schultz mouthed a "f*** you" to her.

Schultz denied this, but later showed in a radio interview the F-bomb is an integral part of his vocabulary when he swore at a caller who called him a "disgrace".

Schultz responded on air: "Go f*** yourself." It seems there's no room in the getting-away-with-murder club for people with disabilities, and Schultz intends to do his best to keep it that way by reminding Pistorius who's waiting for him should he not go to prison.

The irony of the characters in court was not lost on those who follow Joburg's underworld - the very people who made it possible for Schultz to roam around freely are two senior members of the prosecution team: Advocate Gerrie Nel and former Scorpions lead investigator Andrew Leask, who gave him immunity from prosecution in the Kebble murder case.

We don't want your blood money ... anymore:

Reeva's folks, Barry and June, have done a number of media interviews. The catch is that every time they speak, they get paid.

June has called Pistorius the "devil" in interviews and slagged him off as someone who showed no genuine remorse. In the background, their own legal team has been threatening with a possible civil claim.

That is why, when it emerged in court this week that Pistorius had in fact been paying the Steenkamps R6000 per month to help them "survive", everyone was stunned.

June and Barry looked rather uncomfortable when the news surfaced and a hasty statement from their lawyer said it was Pistorius, and not them, who wanted to keep this fact a secret.

They would pay back every cent, they said.

And when Pistorius offered them the proceeds from the sale of his car, they refused as this would amount to "blood money".

If they have been portrayed as money-grabbers in the past, this saga has not done them any favours. Then again, when June's expected bestseller hits the shelves, they might be too busy counting royalties to worry about public opinion.

Help us 'Vergeet' this voice:

IF awards are handed out to the most hapless expert witness of the trial, our favourite Jack-of-all-trades Roger Dixon may just be pipped at the post by probation officer Annette Vergeer.

She comes across as a sympathetic soul. So much so that she once recommended a child molester be given correctional supervision, only for him to rape and kill later.

It does look like in the world of Vergeer, nobody deserves to go to prison. Prisons are filthy and unhygienic and a breeding ground for sodomy and rape, she said.

The problem is, Vergeer has only visited prisons a handful of times.

The rest of her information, she admitted, she gleaned from the internet.

It must have been painful for those following the trial to hear her squeaky voice try to explain away her recommendations under intense cross-examination by Nel.

The mute buttons on remote controls around the country have surely never been pushed as frequently. If her career as a probation officer takes a knock, SAA is always looking for someone to "regret to announce a delay".

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