At least South Africa has the world’s best murder trials

First Oscar Pistorius, then Shrien Dewani: at dinner parties, talk has been of little else for months

From magazine issue: 18 October 2014

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - OCTOBER 06: Members of the ANC Women's League are seen outside the Western Cape High Court during the first day of the Shrien Dewani's trial on October 6, 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. British businessman Shrien Dewani, who fought an extradition battle for three years, is accused of arranging the murder of his new wife in 2010, just days after their marriage. A South African taxi driver and two accomplices are serving prison sentences for their connection with the murder of Mrs Dewani. (Photo by Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images)

issue 18 October 2014

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Rian Malan

At least South Africa has the world’s best murder trials
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Johannesburg

‘They’re much easier to get than they used to be.’

I was astonished, in London the other week, to discover how closely you Britons were following the Oscar Pistorius trial. I was invited to Rosie Boycott’s breakfast club, which meets on Friday mornings in a west London coffee house. The table was full of charming old geezers of approximately my vintage, all clearly Oxbridge men of the most civilised variety and yet as taken with the Pistorius drama as any Hello! magazine subscriber.

Why did the Oscar trial grip the world’s imagination? Some say it is because of the blade runner’s novel handicap. Others put it down to feminism — women everywhere were pissed off by what they took to be the cold-blooded murder of ‘one of us’. My take: do not underestimate the fact that Oscar and his model girlfriend Reeva were young and beautiful and seemed to be living a magical life of fast cars, fancy nightclubs and fashion shoots on tropical islands.