The shocked sister of a stunning model brutally murdered by Oscar Pistorius who has found new love just months after being released from prison asked today: ‘Is she nuts?’
Simone Cowburn, 59, doted on kid sister Reeva Steenkamp who was blasted apart by four bullets fired through a bathroom door by the former athletics legend.
The one-time South African golden boy turned killer – a double amputee dubbed ‘Blade Runner’ for the prosthetic limbs he wore in races – is reported to be in love again.
He has been spotted out and about with multi-millionaire farmer’s daughter Rita Greyling, 33, and close friends have said they have been romantically linked for 3 months.
Pistorius, 38, served just nine years for shooting his lover dead on Valentine’s Day 2013 and was released on parole in January. He now lives in his uncle Arnold’s fortified mansion.
But news broke yesterday that Pistorius has found love again with a lookalike of murdered girlfriend Reeva.
Reeva’s family were convinced the couple rowed at his luxury home in a gated estate in Pretoria and when she went to the bathroom and locked the door he shot her dead.
Oscar who was a Paralympic sprinting gold medal winner and the only double amputee to ever appear in the Olympics was at first only convicted of Reeva’s culpable homicide.
But after huge outrage the prosecutor appealed and the sentence was upgraded to murder.
Oscar Pistorius (R) and his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp pose for a picture in Johannesburg, February 7, 2013
Attractive Rita has a successful career as business management consultant. Sources say Pistorius is trying to rebuild his life after his release into his rich uncle’s care
Pistorius’s new romance with Rita (pictured) comes more than ten years after the horrific Valentine’s Day shooting
Simone Cowburn (pictured), sister of murdered Reeva Steenkamp, previously warned South African authorities against freeing Oscar Pistorius
Reeva’s sister Simone wept yesterday as she read the story of Oscar not only beginning to rebuild his life but finding a new woman after serving only nine years behind bars.
Simone said at her home in Port Elizabeth, South Africa: ‘I am just looking at this woman’s photographs and I have goosebumps and shivers going down my spine at this moment.
‘What shocks me is that she looks so much like my Reeva. She is the same build, the same face and hair, even the same eyes. Is he that sick that he wanted to find a lookalike?
‘I have to ask myself that having killed Reeva did he want to replace her with another?
‘I also have to ask myself how a woman can close her eyes at night and go to sleep with a man she knows fired four bullets that mutilate flesh into a woman he says he loved.
‘Those bullets were Black Talon bullets that are illegal to even use on animals but he put one bullet in my Reeva’s head and three more into her body that did terrible things.
‘How can you cuddle up to a man that you know has that trigger lurking inside him?
‘It just goes to show me even more that he has no remorse for what he did to Reeva.
‘Reeva found Oscar totally charming to start with for the first three months and no doubt the same as this woman does but then he changes and becomes more controlling.
‘He became very possessive and Reeva wanted out but Oscar would not allow it. I will always be convinced she ended the relationship that night and he lost all control.
‘If he couldn’t have her no-one could so he got his gun and shot her. He murdered her. Those were specialised bullets that mushroom on impact with the human flesh.
‘This new woman knows a judge found him guilty of murder which means she must know that he has been found capable of doing that to a woman but she sleeps with him?
‘I have nothing against her but will warn her to sleep with one eye open. He has inside him the potential to do again what he did to Reeva and I don’t want that ever repeated.
‘He will always have anger issues and to a degree I can understand that having had such a tough childhood having his legs amputated at birth and his mum dying when he was 15.
‘His father couldn’t cope and he moved in with his uncle so life was tough for him and I get that but unfortunately the anger he has inside him boils over and it led to a murder.
‘I know as part of his parole he has to go to anger management classes and gender-based violence classes but as far as I am concerned it is always somewhere there inside him.
‘I am just so shocked he has chosen a woman that looks so like my Reeva. I can’t help thinking that having got rid of one Reeva he has gone out and got another’ she said.
Friends said that the tragedies surround both the Pistorius and Greyling families drew them together
Pistorius’ new love Rita. Her family made headlines when in late 2022 her brother Ghini was involved in a devastating incident at Henbase Lodge, Morgenzon
South African model Reeva Steenkamp was killed by ex-Paralympian Pistorius more than a decade ago. Pictured in 2012
Pistorius was released into a media storm when he was granted parole on January 5, 2024, still insisting he killed stunning law graduate and model Reeva, 29, by mistake.
Respected South African newspaper Netwerk24 is now reporting that Pistorius who lives in a cottage in the garden of his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria is in a steady relationship.
They revealed the Blade Runner is dating Rita Greyling, 33, a dynamic business management consultant from Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga who is a long-term family friend.
Sources close to the couple have confirmed to Netwerk24 that Pistorius and Greyling have been together for three months though details are being kept strictly private.
Attractive Rita has a successful career as a business management consultant and Pistorius is trying to rebuild his life after his release into his rich uncle Arnold’s care.
A source close to Pistorius said: ‘He is trying to rebuild his life in a low-key way, avoids bars and restaurants, and avoids the general public, flying under the radar.
‘He is slowly trying to reintegrate into society but that is being done through families that his family have been close to for decades.
‘The word on the street for three months now is that he is dating again’ she said.
Attractive and successful businesswoman Rita is the daughter of mega-rich and well-known farmer BP Greyling who is one of the biggest figures in the South African farming world
Dad BP was South African Farmer Of The Year 2011 and is a regular in a Jeremy Clarkson-style farming TV series called Megaboere (Megafarmer) and is a multi-millionaire.
He dotes on daughter Rita and son Ghini, 30, who manages his 17,500-hectare farm in Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga Province which has 6000 cattle and 21,000 sheep.
It is not known if the pretty farmer’s daughter visited Oscar while he was locked up in Atteridgeville Prison for most of his sentence just a short drive from his uncle’s home.
Oscar Pistorius leaves the Department of Correctional Services offices on April 22, 2024 in Pretoria, South Africa
A source close to Pistorius said: ‘He is trying to rebuild his life in a low-key way and avoids bars and restaurants and the general public and is flying under the radar
Rita Greyling, 33, a business management consultant from Wakkerstroom in Mpumulanga – and a long-term family friend
Pistorius is currently doing volunteer work at a Dutch Reform Church near his home.
His sentence ends in 2029 and as he is on parole, he is subject to checks from the Department of Corrections at any time of day to check he is home and test for alcohol and drugs.
He is not allowed out of the immediate area without informing the local police force and is not allowed a firearm or any contact with Reeva Steenkamp’s mum or sister.
Pistorius is said to have difficulty finding work with pals saying employers see him as ‘toxic’ so instead he volunteers at the church used by his family cleaning and sweeping.
New love Rita’s family also made headlines when in late 2022 her farm manager brother Ghini’s close pal died in a mysterious incident at a lodge the family owns.
That November Willem Kruger, 29, disappeared during a party and police in December 2023 said his death had been moved from what was thought as accidental to a murder inquiry.
Friends said that the double death tragedies surrounding both the Pistorius and Greyling families drew them together and gave Oscar and Rita a common bond that has grown.
Fun-loving farmer Kruger died whilst a guest at a bachelor party thrown by the brother of Oscar Pistorius’s new love Rita Greyling and his body was later found in a river nearby.
He was found dead behind the wheel of his station wagon after he disappeared from the bash at Henbase Lodge on November 23 last year with nobody seeing him ever leave.
The Toyota Hilux Dakar which he owned was discovered by police divers in the Vaal River nearby 9 days after he vanished and it was first thought to be a tragic accident.
But the waters were muddied by the fact that the vehicle was found in a spot combed by police divers just days after he disappeared and the riverbank searched by locals.
Also, the car keys were on the floor of the Toyota rather than in the ignition, the handbrake was on, the gear lever was in park and there was no sign of Willem having struggled.
In addition, the water damage to the car did not tally with the time it was supposed to have been submerged and the dead man’s family believe he may not have died in the river.
They fear that the death of their son is a cover-up and police are still investigating.
Pistorius was dubbed the ‘fastest man on no legs’ winning gold medals for sprinting in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Paralympics and is the only double amputee to have run in the able-bodied Olympics competing in London in 2012.
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