Pistorius on Parole Release

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is set to be released from prison on parole in August after serving 10 months for culpable homicide in the killing of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a family member has said. The 28-year-old double amputee sprinter was found guilty last year of culpable homicide — a charge akin to manslaughter — and sentenced to five years in prison for shooting Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013. "Oscar will be released on parole by the end of August," a Pistorius family member who did not want to be named said. The news was confirmed by correctional services. "He has been recommended for correctional supervision on August 21," Zach Modise, commissioner of the correctional services, said. "Normally, this will mean house arrest with one hour of free time each day. "As he progresses, we will relax these conditions." Steenkamp's family unhappy at decision A statement from the Steenkamp family expressed dismay at Pistorius' release. "Incarceration of 10 months for taking a life is simply not enough," her parents June and Barry Steenkamp said in a statement released online. "We fear that this will not send out the proper message and serve as the deterrent it should." The statement added that the family had "forgiven" Pistorius and did "not seek to avenge" their daughter's death. An appeal by South African prosecutors to try to increase the severity of Pistorius's conviction will be heard in November, the Supreme Court said.

Lady Kwaito Star

https://youtu.be/w6VNcjakX2Y

Pacman Da Messiah

Floyd Mayweather confirmed his status as the best fighter in boxing with a masterful points win over Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas.

The 38-year-old American dictated the fight with his superior ring skills to earn a unanimous verdict with scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112, extending his unbeaten record to 48 fights.

The Pacman the messiah put all his effort and made the badman struggle in few rounds. The battle between the sport's two biggest stars had been billed as the 'Fight of the Century', but Mayweather simply used the 12 rounds to supply a masterclass to the watching world.

Shedding the pre-fight nerves, Mayweather slipped nimbly away from Pacquiao’s tentative attacks in the opening round and started his assault with a lightning right hand. The long-term rivals clinched briefly before the bell, with Mayweather appearing to offer a few words of bravado.

The expected early onslaught from Pacquiao, was more of an uneasy march, and he was tagged with another razor sharp right while attempting to land frenzied punches in the second.

For the first time, Mayweather backed to the ropes in the third, attempting to lure the Filipino into another reckless foray. But Pacquiao was edging closer to the Michigan man and finally found the range with his sharp left hand.

Here was a hint of what was to come as Pacquiao launched a trademark attack in the fourth. A big left hand forced Mayweather to seek refuge on the ropes and he shielded a ferocious flurry. Pumping out punches like a human threshing machine, Pacquiao at last had gained a foothold.

Fight fans, pundits and TV networks had been demanding this bout as far back as 2009 when both men were arguably at their peak.

A series of contractual disputes and stipulations regarding drug testing, however, initially ensured an agreement was impossible.

But after a chance meeting between the pair at an NBA game in Miami earlier this year a deal was in the making. By February, it was on.

Tickets for the event sold out in minutes. Some were exchanging hands on the black market for as much as $350,000 before the fight.

Will be a rematch lets wait and see

A letter 2 Zuma from Mia Couto

Open Letter from the Chairperson of the “Fernando Leite Couto Foundation”, Mia Couto To: His Excellency President Jacob Zuma We remember you in Maputo, in the 1980s, from that time you spent as a political refugee in Mozambique. Often our paths crossed on Julius Nyerere Avenue and we would greet each other with the casual friendliness of neighbours. Often I imagined the fears that you must have felt, as a person persecuted by the apartheid regime. I imagined the nightmares you must have experienced at night when you thought of the ambushes plotted against you and against your comrades in the struggle. But I don’t remember ever seeing you with a bodyguard. In fact it was we Mozambicans who acted as your bodyguards. For years we gave you more than a refuge. We offered you a house and we gave you security at the cost of our security. You cannot possibly have forgotten this generosity. We haven’t forgotten it. Perhaps more than any other neighbouring country, Mozambique paid a high price for the support we gave to the liberation of South Africa. The fragile Mozambican economy was wrecked. Our territory was invaded and bombed. Mozambicans died in defence of their brothers on the other side of the border. For us, Mr President, there was no border, there was no nationality. We were all brothers in the same cause, and when apartheid fell, our festivities were the same, on either side of the border. For centuries Mozambican migrants, miners and peasants, worked in neighbouring South Africa under conditions that were not far short of slavery. These workers helped build the South African economy. There is no wealth in your country that does not carry the contribution of those who today are coming under attack. For all these reasons, it is not possible to imagine what is going on in your country. It is not possible to imagine that these same South African brothers have chosen us as a target for hatred and persecution. It is not possible that Mozambicans are persecuted in the streets of South Africa with the same cruelty that the apartheid police persecuted freedom fighters, inside and outside the country. The nightmare we are living is more serious than that visited upon you when you were politically persecuted. For you were the victim of a choice, of an ideal that you had embraced. But those who are persecuted in your country today are guilty merely of having a different nationality. Their only crime is that they are Mozambicans. Their only offence is that they are not South Africans. Mr President, the xenophobia expressed today in South Africa is not merely a barbaric and cowardly attack against “the others”. It is also aggression against South Africa itself. It is an attack against the “Rainbow Nation” which South Africans proudly proclaimed a decade or more ago. Some South Africans are staining the name of their motherland. They are attacking the feelings of gratitude and solidarity between nations and peoples. It is sad that your country today is in the news across the world for such inhuman reasons. Certainly measures are being taken. But they are proving inadequate, and above all they have come late. The rulers of South Africa can argue everything except that they were taken by surprise. History was allowed to repeat itself. Voices were heard spreading hatred with impunity. That is why we are joining our indignation to that of our fellow Mozambicans and urging you: put an immediate end to this situation, which is a fire that can spread across the entire region, with feelings of revenge being created beyond South Africa’s borders. Tough, immediate and total measures are needed which may include the mobilization of the armed forces. For, at the end of the day, it is South Africa itself which is under attack. Mr President, you know, better than we do, that police actions can contain this crime but, in the current context, other preventive measures must be taken. So that these criminal events are never again repeated. For this, it is necessary to take measures on another scale, measures that work over the long term. Measures of civic education, and of exalting the recent past in which we were so close, are urgently needed. It is necessary to recreate the feelings of solidarity between our peoples and to rescue the memory of a time of shared struggles. As artists, as makers of culture and of social values, we are available so that, together with South African artists, we can face this new challenge, in unity with the countless expressions of revulsion born within South African society. We can still transform this pain and this shame into something which expresses the nobility and dignity of our peoples and our nations. As artists and writers, we want to declare our willingness to support a spirit of neighbourliness which is born, not from geography, but from a kinship of our common soul and shared history. Maputo, 17 April 2015 Mia Couto