by Mandy Wiener
Reeva: I’m not 100% sure why I’m sitting down to type you a message first. But perhaps it says a lot about what’s going on here. Today was one of my best friends engagements and I wanted to stay longer I was enjoying myself but its over now. You have picked on me incessantly since you got back from CT and I understand that you are sick but it’s nasty. Yesterday wasn’t nice for either of us but we managed to pull thro and communicate well enough to show our care for each other is greater than the drama that attacked us. I was not flirting with anyone today. I feel sick that u suggested that and that u made a scene at the table and made us leave early. I’m terribly disappointed in how the day ended and how u left me. We are living in a double standard relationship where u can be mad about how I deal with stuff when u are very quick to act cold and offish when you’re unhappy. Every 5 seconds I hear how u dated another chick you really have dated a lot of people yet you get upset if I mention ONE funny story with a long term boyfriend. I do everything to make u happy and to not say anything to rock the boat with u. You do everything to throw tantrums in front of people. I have been upset by you for 2 days now. I’m so upset I left Darren’s party early. SO upset. I can’t get that day back. I’m scared of u sometimes and how u snap at me and of how u will react to me. You make me happy 90% of the time and I think we are amazing together but I am not some other bitch you may know trying to kill your vibe. I am the girl who let go with u even when I was scared out of my mind to, I’m the girl who fell in love with u and wanted to tell u this weekend. But I’m also the girl that gets side stepped when you are in a shit mood. When I feel you think u have me so why try anymore. I get snapped at and told my accents and voices are annoying. I touch your neck to show u I care you tell me to stop. Stop chewing gum. Do this don’t do that. You don’t want to here stuff cut me off. Your endorsements your reputation your impression of something innocent blown out of proportion and fucked up a special day to me. I’m sorry if you truly felt I was hitting on my friend Sams husband and I’m sorry that u think that little of me. From the outside I think it looks like we are a struggle and maybe that’s what we are. I just want to love and be loved. Be happy and make someone SO happy. Maybe we can’t do that for each other. Cos right now I know u aren’t happy and I am certainly very unhappy and sad.
Oscar: I want to talk to you, I want to sort this out.. I don’t want to have anything less than amazing for you and I.. I’m sorry for the things I say without thinking and for taking offense to some of your actions. The fact that I’m tired and sick isn’t an excuse. I was upset that you just left me after we got food to go talk to a guy and I was standing tight behind you watching you touch his arm and ignore me and when I spoke up you introduced me which you could’ve done but when I left you just kept on chatting to him when clearly I was upset. I asked Martin to put on that kendrick lemar Album in the car and don’t know it, granted that was a shut song but you could’ve just lent forward and whispered in my ear to change it scene I had to drive to pick up your friend. I was 30 min late and I know you don’t like it when I drive fast but then you should’ve asked Gina to drive herself so that we wouldn’t have to. When we left I was starving, the only good I’d had was a tiny wrap and everyone was leaving for lunch, I’m sorry I wanted to go but I was hungry and upset and although you knew it it wasn’t like you came to chat to me when I left the table. I was upset when I left you cause I thought you were coming to me. I’m sorry I asked you to stop taping my neck yesterday, I know you were just trying to show me love.. I had a mad headache and should’ve just spoken to you softly. In sorry for asking you not to put on an accent last night.. Pretty much the same and didn’t have the energy.
YOU magazine also published details about arguments that occurred while the couple was on holiday in the Cape, while the Sunday Times reported on how the duo argued in public, on their way to the parking lot, after the Virgin Active Sport Industry Awards at Emperors Palace on 7 February.
In her statement, Gina gives more insight into the events that took place that night.
‘The night that Reeva attended the Virgin Active Awards with Oscar, I returned home from VIP at approximately 1.30am. I walked upstairs and started to lock up. Reeva’s room is near the security door. I heard her talking in a slightly raised voice and repeatedly saying the word “but”. I could not hear much else. I knocked on the door, but she did not respond so I left. I then sent her a message saying, “love you Alfi, come wake me up if you need anything.” She responded immediately “omg” and then “omg you’re awake. Im coming.” I replied, “lol”.
‘I then walked into her room and saw that she was covered in the blanket with her hand on her face. She always fiddled with her eyebrows or something when she was frustrated. She appeared similar to the video footage of her when she drove into Oscar’s complex as seen in the Carte Blanche programme. I cannot remember the exact details of the fight but she told me that Oscar just wanted her to be attached to his side the whole time and if she was not, he freaked out. This occurred that evening, when they were leaving and she walked around one side of the table and he walked the other way around. He was then annoyed because she was not next to him. When she walked ahead of him, he became angry and told her that people would say that they were fighting.
‘He had a fight with her and dropped her off at home. He then called her and this was the reason why they were arguing over the phone. He eventually said he was going to sleep and they ended the conversation. She then said to me once again, “Gi, I cannot do this.”’
Reeva’s WhatsApp message to Oscar that night revealed just how upset she was about the fight:
I like to believe that I make u proud when I attend these kinds of functions with u. I present myself well and can converse with others whilst u are off busy chatting to fans/friends. I also knew people there tonight and whilst u were having one or 2 pics taken i was saying goodbye to people in my industry and Fix wanted a photo with me. I was just being cordial by saying goodbye whilst u were busy. I completely understood your desperation to leave and thought I would be helping u by getting to the exit before u because I can’t rush in the heels I was wearing. I thought it would make a difference in us getting out without u being harassed anymore. I didn’t think you would criticize me for doing that especially not so loudly so that others could hear. I might joke around and be all Tom boyish at times but I regard myself as a lady and I didn’t feel like one tonight after the way u treated me when we left. I’m a person too and I appreciate that u invited me out tonight and I realise that u get harassed but I am trying my best to make u happy and I feel as tho u sometimes never are no matter the effort I put in. I can’t be attacked by outsiders for dating u AND be attacked by you, the one person I deserve protection from.
In an interview with Heat magazine a week before she died, Reeva spoke openly about how she worried that ‘lies’ could ruin her fledgling relationship with the athlete. She said that while she respected and admired him, she also feared that negative publicity could harm his career: ‘We haven’t been talking to the media because I don’t want to get it tainted. I don’t want anything coming in the way of his career. He’s such an amazing athlete.’ She added: ‘You know what they do, they make things up, “Reeva cheats on Oscar” and rubbish like that. I wouldn’t want lies about us jeopardising it. I’m trying to work on my modelling career and remove myself from the whole FHM stigma,’ she said. ‘I want to be seen as a classic model.’
Gina reveals that in the last few weeks of Reeva’s life, she was incredibly stressed about her career, her finances and her relationship.
‘For the last two weeks of Reeva’s life, she complained on a daily basis that she felt sick. She was sick from anxiety, but said that she did not know what had caused it. She seemed really stressed. She told me that she was stressed about money for her parents and that she desperately needed to give them money but that she was also low on cash. She had so many plans for this year and they were only starting to materialise.’
Her death compounded the family’s financial woes and left them without a source of financial assistance. On 29 June 2013, June Steenkamp told The Daily Mail: ‘Our hearts just feel broken. But we have no choice but to sue. Pistorius has placed us in this position. We are struggling financially. Reeva was helping us. On the night she died, when she was on her way to Oscar’s house, we talked about her sending us money to pay our cable television bill. I was fretting because I thought I was going to miss her first TV appearance. She told me not to worry, she would send money the next day. She regularly helped us with food and utility bills.’
Part of Reeva’s stress was attributed to a new international television series, Strike Back, for which she had auditioned. She told Gina that as part of the role, she was required to kiss someone and she was concerned about how Oscar would react. Gina says that while Reeva knew the role would fast forward her career, she didn’t know how she would tell her boyfriend.
‘On the day that the filming of this series began, she still had not told Oscar. She just told him she was on set. On set, she was told that the part was far more intense and revealing than she had thought. The actor had come in and told her that it was more explicit and there was more nudity than she had been told. She called me and told me that she had refused to do so and was leaving. She left without doing the part. She also told me that she had subsequently told Oscar what had happened. She told me that Oscar had then told her never to be scared to tell him stuff, it was fine, she had left and should come through to Pretoria. She went through to Pretoria that night. The next day, she told me that he was not impressed with the whole thing but that he would get over it.’
One of the casting agents on the series, Steve Jordaan, remembered Reeva being in make-up, ready for the shoot, but walking off set because she was unhappy about the nudity. ‘Reeva was going to play the raunchy little waitress in the opening scene with lead actor Sullivan Stapleton. She used the Tropika show as her excuse, saying the nudity wouldn’t be good for her image, but talk on set was that she had a fight with Oscar after he found out it was a topless scene,’ he said.
The scene involved the actress and Stapleton in a steamy state of undress – and Jordaan cast Nicolene Botha at the last minute. ‘The director was fuming. In the casting video she was specifically told that she was auditioning for a nude scene, and she was okay with that. It was a complete surprise,’ said Jordaan.
Gina states that whenever she asked Reeva whether she had told Oscar about her financial problems with her parents, Reeva said she did not want to because she did not want to make him feel as if he needed to give her money. Additionally, she stated that Oscar always made out as if his problems were bigger. ‘She told me that she felt like it always had to be about him.’
On Sunday, 3 February 2013, while she was out for breakfast with a friend, Gina received a call from a distressed Reeva. ‘She was crying and told me that she needed to sit down and talk to me about stuff. She repeated the money problems that she had with her parents and that she needed to help them. I told her to stop putting pressure on herself and to breathe. She was in her car on the way to lunch with Oscar, but she was alone. She repeated that she had a sick, horrible feeling and that we needed to sit down and make plans. I calmed her down.’
Gina was becoming increasingly sceptical about Oscar and his possessive nature, and yet, despite this, Reeva also told her that she was finally ready to tell Oscar that she loved him. On the face of it, the couple did seem more and more in love. In her sworn statement, Gina recounted the events of the last time she saw her best friend alive. It was Tuesday morning, 12 February, and she was sitting on Reeva’s bed chatting about the day ahead. Gina elaborated further on their exchange in an interview with us: ‘It was the last time that I saw her and it was just before she got ready for the day. We were sitting on her bed and she had her laptop. She asked if she could show me the pictures she was printing for Oscar for Valentine’s Day. It was some pictures of them together and one picture of her alone and one picture of him alone. She turned around to me and showed me the picture of him. And she said, “Gi, does that not look like the face of a murderer?” We laughed because we called him the stalker. She was joking around. She definitely wasn’t serious about it.’
Samantha repeatedly returns to that final Tuesday evening she spent lazing on the carpet with Reeva, ‘faffing’ and pondering the future. Reeva, a romantic with a penchant for celebrating special occasions, had big plans for Valentine’s Day. So much so that the day before she posted this tweet:
What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay
Samantha gives a rare insight into what Reeva had up her own sleeve for her love. ‘She had planned this whole thing, she was so excited. She was like that, she liked special occasions,’ Sam remembers. Reeva was plotting an elaborate breakfast picnic in the garden of Oscar’s home, replete with heart-shaped biscuits.
‘She had planned to make a whole breakfast. They were going to get up early and they were going to have a picnic in the garden. She would make heart-shaped biscuits and make a picnic. She had gone and got heart-shaped sweets, you know those little sherbet things that say, “I love you,” and stuff all over them. She was planning on making him pancakes with Nutella. She was going to get up early, go and put the blanket out in the garden, put stuff around it at sunrise as a surprise …’ Samantha trails off. Reeva had also planned on giving her ‘boo’ a framed photograph of them, which she had wrapped.
In an interview she gave to ZAlebs just days before her death, Reeva spoke of how she planned on spending the day spreading love: ‘I’ve realised that although Valentine’s Day can be a cheesy money-making stint to most people, it’s a day of expressing love across the world. It doesn’t have to only be between lovers, but by telling a friend that you care, or even an old person that they are still appreciated.’
According to the Mail & Guardian newspaper, Reeva visited Party Box Goodies, a gift shop in the Hazeldean Square shopping centre up the road from Oscar’s house on the afternoon before her death. She apparently told the shop assistant, ‘My boyfriend really loves Valentine’s Day’ as she purchased wrapping paper for the gift:
She was there to buy ‘Valentine’s Day wrapping paper’, according to the shop assistant who helped Steenkamp. The assistant, who asked not to be named, said that the blonde model appeared happy and in love. ‘She was smiling and laughing when she arrived,’ said the assistant. ‘She walked out smiling, too … I offered to wrap the gift for her. It was a photo frame and four photographs of the two of them [Pistorius and Steenkamp]. I told her that it’s good for women to give Valentine’s Day gifts instead of expecting presents from their boyfriends. She agreed, and added: ‘This is a surprise for him. He loves surprises.’
Reeva was meant to meet Gina for coffee on the afternoon of Wednesday, 13 February, but because she was already in Pretoria, she decided not to.
‘I finished my job at about two and she said she was going to come through to Joburg, and when I finished I messaged her and she just said, “My Gi, I’m still in Pretoria.” She was so excited and she had planned all these new things and she told me about certain goals that she had and she was really excited that day and I even said to her, I said, “You know I’m here to support you for anything and I’m so happy to hear that and I’m so excited for you.”’
At around 6pm, Reeva pulled up to the security access point at the Silver Woods estate, the window rolled down and her elbow resting on the door of her gunmetal-grey Mini Cooper. Her hair was tied up and she was wearing a simple black vest. Reeva smiled broadly as she exchanged a laugh and bantered with a guard at the boom before being waved through into the complex. Some ten minutes later, Oscar’s white BMW pulled in to the estate. He had driven through from Johannesburg where he had b
een visiting Justin at the Daytona Group in Sandton. Samantha recalls the day vividly because she had tried to get Oscar to lure his girlfriend to Johannesburg so that she could go to a movie with her.
‘I’d finished work at about three and I’d said to her I wanted to go to a movie that night. I was going to go to movies on my own. I’d sent her a message at about ten in the morning and she said, “Ja, okay, let me just see how my day goes, I’ll message you.” I went past the dealership just to say hi to Just, and Oscar was there. I was standing with him at reception and Justin was going out for dinner with two of his guy friends that night, so I said to him, “You go for dinner with Justin. Phone your girlfriend and tell her to come here to come to movies with me.”
‘Reeva had messaged Oscar earlier in the day indicating she might drive through to Joburg, but wanted to get a few things done at his house in Pretoria. “Baba I hope u don’t mind but I came back to the house to work a bit and do some washing. It will help me a lot to get stuff done and relieve some stress. Ill go through to Jhb at like 3 xxx”.
‘So he phoned her while he was standing with me and it was so cute, “Boo Boo, don’t you want to come here and bring me a change of clothes and then I’ll go to dinner with Justin and you go to a movie with Sam and then either we can sleep over there or we’ll drive back after or something.” I heard her saying, “Hmmm, I’m so tired, I’m already at your house and I don’t want to drive from Pretoria now.” She said, “Please just come home and let’s snuggle. Just come over and let’s like chill and make a veggie burger or something.” That was their night in: veggie burgers. He got off the phone and he said, “Oooh, I better go home!” So I left it. I went to a movie on my own, Justin went to dinner. That was it.
