My opinion.

According to my thoughts about the Oscar Pistoruis’ reputation, it has been ruined and cannot be redeemed in any way. This is just my opinion as the next Public Relations Practitioner. Oscar Pistoruis career has been ruined by a terrible mistake that he has done, so he claims that its a mistake. Oscar shot his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013 through a locked bathroom door in the estate house in Pretoria. This was an accident, so Oscar says. Oscar is well known blade runner who is now well known for shooting and killing his girlfriend. It took him years to build his reputation as an athlete  but it took him only 4 bullets to ruin his athlete image and for him to e known as a murderer.

According to Oscar Pistoruis, this was a mistake it wasn’t a pre-mediated. This was very questionable mistake as there was just Reeva Steenkamp(girlfriend) and Oscar Pistoruis in the house during the incident and now claims that he thought there was an intruder in the house.

Public Relations expert.

Public Relations expert say that Oscar Pistoruis’ reputation was ruined during the first week when the incident happened. Public Relations expert also say that the greatest damage was done by Oscar’s conflicting testimony during the first week of the murder trail. Oscar has stated how great he really is but this really conflicted with the act he pulled on Valentine’s Day 2013. The main question to this problem is that, will the athletes’ image be redeemed or is it forever ruined?  

Public Relations is all about building a positive image for a brand or an organization, building good relationships with the organization’s stakeholders and also taking care of the good image if it’s there. It may take 20 year to build a reputation for a brand or an organization, but it can take only 4 bullets to ruin the entire image of a certain brand.

The Oscar trail is a very topical issue in South Africa and all over the world currently. It is an issue that everyone has an opinion about. I will be stating my thoughts on how the Oscar Pistoruis case has played a huge role in his career.

Oscar Leonard Carl Pistoruis is an athlete who is well known as the “blade runner”, the fasts man on no legs. He was born 22 November 1986 at the Sandton, Johannesburg, Tranvaal Province, South Africa. He studied at the University of Pretoria where he did not graduate.

According to my knowledge and understanding of current events and court trails, the Oscar trail is an unfair trail that added on to the ruining of his reputation not looking at the main incident. The Oscar trail is not being treated like any other trial. The trail is being broadcasted live as it takes place in the court room. This method of updating people about what happens in the court room is really not fair for the accused as witness and other people who were going to be of good use for Oscar don’t want to be broadcasted at all. People do not want to shown on television nor their voices to be on television and this serves an image smash for Oscar Pistoruis.

Due to what Oscar did to his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp(24) really played an important role in Oscar’s reputation, as almost all his sponsors pulled back and wanted nothing to do with the name Oscar as they felt that it’s not good for their brands. This brands are brands like Nike and Oakley who pulled out with no hesitation.

It takes a powerful Public Relations Practitioner to change an image that is ruined by many incidents in one instance. It also takes a brave Public Relations practitioner to associate themselves with such names.

Oscar Pistoruis "the blade runner" at the high court in Pretoria.