Publications
Partners
It’s been five years since Reeva Steenkamp's tragic death and her mother June Steenkamp is still battling to come to terms with the loss of her precious daughter.
The bereaved mother wrote a piece on Mamamia, an Australian women’s website, revealing how she’s been carrying on her late daughter’s legacy.
14 February 2018 marks five years since Reeva was shot dead by Oscar Pistorius.
“I sometimes wonder how Barry and I have survived to tell the tale,” June (71) wrote.
“When you have a child who is so close to you and who gives you so much love and attention, it’s so difficult to carry on and live without them. It almost seems impossible.”
June, who says that Reeva (29) would phone her and Barry (74) every Saturday and Sunday, revealed that the model was supposed to give a speech at Sandton High School about women abuse the day she died.
“She was going to tell the young girls there that they should be respected by all men and not tolerate any other behaviour.
“I have still got the speech she had written. I read it to the learners at St Dominic’s High school, where Reeva attended. In her speech, she said: ‘Everyone deserves to be loved and live in a safe place’,” she wrote.
Last year, a US production company released a TV movie on Oscar and Reeva’s doomed romance, called Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer, which left June and Barry feeling violated.
A trailer for the film showed the actress playing their daughter in lacy lingerie, lying in bed with the man who would kill her.
“I couldn’t watch the whole thing [the trailer],” Barry told YOU soon after it was released. “At the bedroom scene I had to stop.”
But his wife watched the trailer right to the end and she says it made her “as mad as a snake”.
“Reeva was pure, wonderful and a Christian woman,” June said. “She’d never have wanted to be presented in this way. They portray her as a sex kitten. It’s very, very hurtful.”
The mom, who’s inspired by her daughter’s ambition, decided to start the Reeva Steenkamp foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to educate children about violence, bullying, and abuse.
“I thought straight away of a foundation to protect women, for awareness for them to realise what they were involved in,” June told WHO.
“Violence against women is escalating daily now. Reeva was already working against abuse, I’m taking the baton and going forward with it.”
To commemorate Reeva’s death, June and the Steenkamp family will go to Summerstrand beach to say a prayer for her and lay down some flowers.
“We chose this spot because when she was on the television show Tropica Island she swam between two dolphins and she said it was the most beautiful experience she ever had,” June wrote.
“Now for us and her friends, the 14th of February will always signify the anniversary of her death.
“A day of romantic froth for others will always be a dark day accompanied by pain and suffering.”
Sources: mamamia.co.au, dailymail.co.uk, who.com.au
