Athlete’s uncle Leo says claims by Jared Mortimer that his nephew insulted President Zuma and boasted of his family’s influence were “designed for maximum attention and maximum damage"
The family of murder-accused Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius have denounced as “outrageous” claims that he insulted President Jacob Zuma and boasted about his relatives’ influence over government in the run-up to a scuffle that saw him ejected from a Johannesburg nightclub at the weekend.
Leo Pistorius, the 27-year-old’s uncle, said the claims made by Jared Mortimer, a racing car driver and clothes label owner who was at Sandton’s VIP Room on Saturday, were “designed for maximum attention and maximum damage”.
Mr Pistorius said that while the decision by his nephew to go to the nightclub was “unwise and ill-considered”, it was because he had an “escalating sense of loneliness and alienation” which they believe is causing “self-harming behaviour”.
He said that his own investigations, corroborated with people who were present at the exclusive nightspot, confirmed that “Mortimer was the aggressor”.
Percy Mermigas, the club’s manager, backed up Mr Pistorius’s version, saying that “everything is being blown out of proportion’’.
“I was sitting with him [Pistorius] and his cousin at their table. They were there for an hour and there was definitely no ‘altercation’ as this person is making out,” he told South Africa’s Times newspaper.
“He was chilling with his cousin, nothing more and nothing less. If there was something, like what is being described, we would definitely have got involved. What I can say is that Oscar was at the club and left, like any other normal patrons, after an hour.”
Mr Mortimer told a South African celebrity news website that Pistorius had boasted to him of his family’s influence and bad-mouthed his friends while poking him in the chest and pulling at his neck. He said the athlete was drunk and fell over backwards into a chair when he pushed him away.
“He was going on about how influential his family is and how connected they are,” he told The Juice website. “He even pulled out his phone to show me pictures of armoured cars. He said ‘My family owns SANDF. Zuma works for us. I’ll piss on Zuma’.”
He has since refused to comment further.
Pistorius said on Monday through a spokesman that Mr Mortimer “aggressively interrogated him” on matters relating to his murder trial. He is charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day last year. He shot her through a locked lavatory door at his Pretoria home. He alleges he mistook her for an intruder.
In a statement released late last night, Leo Pistorius added further details to the denial. “Mr Mortimer, who has been unknown to Oscar and our family until he approached the press with his story of the so-called ‘altercation’ in which he has cast himself as the victim, is a man peddling untruths designed for maximum attention and maximum damage,” he said.
“We wish to categorically state that there is absolutely no truth to this man’s assertions that Oscar, for instance, insulted the president of South Africa or boasted about our family’s so-called influence,” he said.
“Oscar was at school with one of President Zuma’s sons and liked him a lot. Oscar also has great appreciation of President’s Zuma’s extraordinary support of the Paralympians.”
He said Pistorius was “grappling with an extreme level of emotional pain that is manifesting itself in some of his recent unwise actions and choices”.
“Whilst Oscar venturing out into a public space with his cousin in the current climate and whilst his court case is still under way was unwise, those of us closest to him have been witness to his escalating sense of loneliness and alienation,” he said. “This, we believe, is underlying some of his self-harming behaviour. As a family we are counselling Oscar to find ways of dealing with his feelings of isolation.”
Last week, Pistorius’s defence team closed its case in his murder trial at Pretoria’s High Court. Closing arguments in the case will be heard on August 7 and 8, before the judge’s verdict on a date yet to be announced.
Facebook Blogger Plugin by Dj Hunter
Post a Comment