Oscar Pistorius’ six-year jail sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp has angered many people, including the family of a man who got 10 years behind bars for attempted murder.
Mom Johanna Sauls, 54, believed if they were rich and famous like the Blade Runner, her son Benjamin “Bennie” Sauls, 33, would have gotten a lighter sentence.
Legal experts believe Pistorius could be out on parole in about three years’ time.
Bennie, a club rugby player in Botrivier, and dad to a young daughter, was sentenced to 10 years after he stabbed a Hermanus businessman three times in the back and once in the leg in May 2015, apparently over a woman he was seeing at the time.
Johanna says although six years of the sentence was suspended, her son didn’t deserve the heavy punishment.
“I knew he had to be punished but thought it would be lighter because it’s his first offence, he has a small daughter and is the breadwinner. If he was rich and famous like Oscar he would have gotten a lighter sentence” says Johanna.
Lawyers are busy appealing the sentence.
Friends and family started a Facebook page called Support Benjamin Sauls, which collected 237 likes by yesterday.
Louis Swartz posted: “... waar kan ’N man 6 jaar kry vir moord... en dan kry Benna so swaar straf vir messteek.”
Even mense overseas thought Oscar’s sentence was unfair.
UK TV personality Piers Morgan wrote: “If #Pistorius was black & non-famous, he’d have got life imprisonment. Saved by celebrity status.”
Desiree de Waal posted an article of two men who were recently sentenced to 15 years each for robbing SABC crew during a broadcast and commented: “Is lady justice telling us that property has more value than a life, or is lady justice a whore who is for sale to the highest bidder? The punishment should fit the crime and not who you are.”