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On Sunday night in Carte Blanche on M-Net (DStv 101) at 19:00 June Steenkamp, mother of Reeva Steenkamp who was shot and killed by Oscar Pistorius, will break her silence in an interview with Devi Sankaree Govender.- a mother's voice that all of South Africa has been waiting to hear.
"I don't feel anything, he [Oscar Pistorius] is not anything to me," June Steenkamp says to Devi Sankaree Govender. "I feel angry for what he's done to her. It is my child. I gave birth to her."
On Sunday night June Steenkamp takes Carte Blanche's Devi Sankaree Govender into her home after almost two years of media silence, sharing her most intimate thoughts about life without her daughter who was killed on 14 February, Valentines Day, last year by the paralympic "bladerunner" who is now behind bars.
Este de Klerk is the Carte Blanche producer of the big get, in an hour during which Carte Blanche will also has a revealing Eskom expose as South African households have been warned that they could be plunged into darkness and load shedding this weekend again.
I'm told getting and securing the interview with June Steenkamp took Carte Blanche two weeks to iron out the details, with the cameras which rolled this past Tuesday at June Steenkamp's home in Port Elizabeth.
Devi Sankaree Govender tells TV with Thinus "it felt surreal" to do the interview and to talk to June Steenkamp, following her months covering the trial as one of the anchors on MultiChoice's Oscar Pistorius Trial TV channel on DStv.
"I read the book [June Steenkamp's book published by Jonathan Ball] with great interest and there were quite a few dots I needed to connect in my head," says Devi Sankaree Govender.
Seated in her lounge with Devi Sankaree Govender, with a large canvas featuring Reeva's face behind them, June Steenkamp reveals her true thoughts about the trial and what it was like for her to face the man who killed her daughter day after day in court and to finally reach a place where, as a Christian, she could forgive him.
"Sorry can never cover what he'd done," says June Steenkamp who will reveal that Oscar Pistorius "wanted to see us. He did try and make an appointment, but we weren't ready to face him".
"I think I'd like to look in his face so he can see exactly what he's done to us and he's taken away from us. I want to say to him: 'Here, I am the mother and you have taken everything from us."
On Sunday evening Carte Blanche viewers will see June Steenkamp talk about the "special connection" she still feels with Reeva following her death and she will also talk about her husband Barry Steenkamp and his struggle to confront the brutal way in which their daughter died.
June Steenkamp opens up to Carte Blanche about what it has been like being financially destitute and the decisions they made around finances.
"It can never get better, unless somebody can bring her back to life, it's never going to get better. You got to learn to live with it, to get on with you life," June Steenkamp tells Carte Blanche. "When I first saw him, I thought: this was the person who killed my daughter".
"And I think that I, in a way, unnerved him. And I liked that part of it. I wanted to be there for Reeva, so, to me it was good that I unnerved him."
She also reveals to Carte Blanche, and speaks openly and candidly to Devi Sankaree Govender, about appearing strong but inwardly dealing with "incredible pain" that she would not wish on anyone - and the way in which she knows that no amount of time will allow her and her husband to come to terms with what happened.
"I've forgiven him. As a Christian, you have to forgive. Otherwise you going to carry all this pain inside you, and this hatred and I am not like that," says June Steenkamp.
While Carte Blanche can't broadcast the full interview in its entirely, the full interview will be made available on MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up service right after Sunday evening's Carte Blanche episode.
