Abil, as the bank is known, has helped to pioneer unsecured
lending in Africa’s top economy, offering high-interest loans to
millions of low-income borrowers.

But its results were hit by the need to write off 445
million rand in bad loans. That, alongside the profit fall and a
70 percent cut in its dividend, sent the shares down as much as
25 percent at one point.

“Everyone has been talking about a potential bubble and all
the concern has been raised for quite a while, but we’re finally
seeing it in the cold, hard numbers,” said Nic Norman-Smith,
chief investment officer at Lentus Asset Management.

Unsecured lending in South Africa has risen by 16 percent to
a total of 441 billion rand ($47 billion) in the six months to
Dec. 31, central bank figures show.

The market has grown as the country’s leading banks joined
Abil and fellow niche lender Capitec Bank Holdings in
chasing the higher margins offered by unsecured loans because
they carry greater risk than secured loans backed by collateral.

The lending bonanza has helped to prop up South Africa’s
otherwise lacklustre growth in recent years, with retail and car
sales the only two major economic indicators to show steady
growth in 2012.

However, unemployment remains stuck at around 25 percent and
household debt averages more than three quarters of disposable
income, central bank data show, as overleveraged South Africans
resort to credit cards and short-term loans to get by.

‘CHALLENGING PERIOD’

“It’s going to be a challenging period for (banks) with
exposure to unsecured credit,” said Johann Scholtz, head of
research at Afrifocus Securities in Cape Town.

“The consumer is under pressure and in all likelihood one
would start to see an increase in impairments across the
industry.”

Shares of South Africa’s “big four” banks – Standard
, FirstRand, Absa and Nedbank
- also declined on Monday, though unsecured lending represents a
small proportion of their overall business.

Standard and Nedbank shares were down about 3 percent by
1500 GMT. Absa had fallen by 5 percent and FirstRand less than 2
percent.

Abil’s first-half headline earnings totalled 125.7 cents a
share, compared with 170.4 cents a year earlier. Headline
earnings per share, the main measure of profit in South Africa,
exclude certain one-off items.

Chief Financial Officer Nithia Nalliah said that the bank’s
retail business, which sells furniture on credit, is likely to
fall to a full-year loss on weakening demand from cash-strapped
shoppers.

Another possible concern is that the bank does not take
deposits and instead raises financing through bonds, meaning it
could face sharply higher funding costs in the future.

Hedge fund manager David Stemerman, of Conatus Capital
Management, told a conference in New York this month that
investors should bet against Abil’s shares, citing the growth in
unsecured lending and its lack of deposits.

Abil also faces a potential regulatory fine of 300 million
rand for reckless lending. It said the fine was unwarranted and
it had not made any provisions for it.

The bank’s shares were down 16.4 percent at 17.60 rand by
1445 GMT.
($1 = 9.3850 South African rand)

(Additional reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by
David Goodman)

But policymakers and executives, worried the flood of cheap Chinese imports is sapping Africa’s own manufacturing potential, say the continent must drive harder bargains with China.

The time has come, some say, to jettison the view of Beijing as Africa’s benevolent partner, bound by a common resistance to the meddling West.

“The sad reality is that they are not comrades. Their companies are there to make profits like everyone else,” Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit this week.

“The African textile industry has basically collapsed because of cheap Chinese imports … Africa needs China but let’s create an equitable relationship.”

China’s trade with Africa has surged from about $10 billion in 2000 to $166 billion in 2011, with much of that an exchange of African minerals for Chinese manufactured goods.

Nigerian Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi warned last month it was time for Africans to wake up to the realities of their relationship with China.

“It is a significant contributor to Africa’s deindustrialization and underdevelopment,” he said in an opinion piece in the Financial Times that ruffled feathers in Beijing.

Even in South Africa, the continent’s largest and most developed economy, manufacturing accounts for just 15 percent of GDP. It is even lower elsewhere, under 11 percent in Kenya and 10 percent in Nigeria.

AFRICA TO BLAME?

Part of the fault may lie with African policymakers, for not demanding enough from their Chinese counterparts at the bargaining table.

“If you allow the Chinese to come and rape you and take whatever they do because you’re just looking at the money they bring, and if you’re looking on a short-term basis, the country will suffer, there’s no two ways about it,” said Sipho Nkosi, CEO of South African mining company Exxaro Resources (EXXJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Africa must demand that China transfer skills and technology to the continent instead of allowing it to simply export raw materials, he said.

For some African politicians, part of China’s attraction lies in its unwillingness to criticize local governments over human rights or corruption, unlike the West.

“You can’t blame the donor only. You need to blame the receiving government as well,” said Elias Masilela, the chief executive of South Africa’s government pension fund.

African governments also needed to do more to put in place the infrastructure – including power and transport – that can support a domestic manufacturing industry, speakers said.

Sensitive to the criticism, China has been careful to frame its role in Africa as one that is mutually beneficial.

“Africa had a long colonial history and should know the nature of colonialism,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last month in response to Sanusi’s comments.

“Comparing China-Africa cooperation to the old colonial Western powers lacks any sense of logic.”

LOAN-BACKED CHARM OFFENSIVE

Beijing has also responded with a charm offensive to ease concerns about its role on the world’s poorest continent, including lobbying for South Africa’s addition to the group of developing countries now called BRICS.

President Xi Jinping last month visited Africa on his first trip abroad as president.

While Xi outlined his Africa policy as a partnership among equals, China clearly holds the cash: it is offering $20 billion of loans to the continent between 2013 and 2015.

China’s strength in low-cost, large-volume manufacturing has also helped some local industries, most notably telecoms, where handsets and equipment from the likes of Huawei (002502.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and ZTE (000063.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have made mobile phones affordable for millions of Africans.

“It probably has been more beneficial if one looks at it from our industry,” said Sifiso Dabengwa, chief executive of South African telecommunications company MTN Group (MTNJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), told the Summit.

“They have driven prices down quite significantly.”

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Benon Oluka and Zandi Shabalala in Johannesburg; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

Adcock reaps almost all of its revenue from South Africa
where it is dwarfed by local rival Aspen Pharmacare,
which has made an aggressive push into overseas markets.

Sometimes called “the General Electric of South Africa”
Bidvest has businesses in freight, banking and food service and
operates in Europe, Asia, Australia and southern Africa.

Bidvest’s founder and chief executive Brian Joffe has a
reputation as a cost-cutter and for buying companies that can
benefit from Bidvest’s distribution network and customer base.

Adcock, known for its Panado painkillers and cold medicines,
said in a statement it has not had yet had time to review the
unsolicited bid.

“This acquisition is very much the blueprint of Bidvest,”
said one analyst who is not allowed to speak to the media.

“Get a solid, significant player in any industry that’s
underperforming, apply the Bidvest returns and cash flow
generation magic to it and transform it.”

Over the last 12 months, shares of Adcock have been the
worst performer among the four companies in Johannesburg’s
Pharma & Biotech index, falling more than 5 percent.
Rival Aspen has surged nearly 70 percent during the same period.

Bidvest has offered to raise its stake in Adcock to 60
percent from 2.5 percent now. Half the offer would be in cash at
65 rand per share, with the other a half a payment of one
Bidvest share for every four Adcock shares.

Adcock’s shares surged more than 10 percent to a record
63.11 rand. At 1140 GMT the 61.44 rand share price valued the
offer at around 6.2 billion rand ($665 million). Bidvest said it
would fund the cash portion itself.

Shares of Bidvest fell 3.6 percent to 233.71 rand, valuing
the company just shy of $8 billion.

The deal would mark the latest big-ticket purchase for
Joffe, the son of Lithuanian immigrants who famously built a $1
million start-up into a multinational with $13 billion in annual
revenue.

“He’s a very good operator. Very shrewd. He’ll squeeze the
margins wherever he can,” said Abri du Plessis, a portfolio
manager at Gryphon Asset Management in Cape Town.

Bidvest would pay 20 percent less than what Adcock should be
trading at based on its most likely earnings growth trajectory,
according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

StarMine’s intrinsic valuation model puts Adcock’s share
price at 79.06 rand, based on an expected 6.3 percent five-year
annual compounded growth.

Adcock has said it wants about 30 percent of its revenue to
come from outside South Africa in the next few years. Last year
it bought a portfolio of 60 medicines for India’s Cosme Farma
for $86 million.

($1 = 9.3158 South African rand)

(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Naspers said it planned to merge its Slando and OLX Russian
units into Avito and has injected $50 million to create a more
powerful presence in Europe’s largest internet market.

“The rationale for this transaction was to create a stronger
market player in the high-growth Russian classifieds market, in
which we’ll have a significant minority stake,” Naspers
spokeswoman Meloy Horn said on Tuesday.

The deal values Avito at more than $570 million and will
give the group a 25 percent share of the burgeoning Russian
classifieds market in terms of traffic and a 15 percent share in
revenue terms, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Russia’s internet market is attracting investor interest
from around the world. Share sales in internet groups Yandex
and Mail.Ru were oversubscribed and online
auction giant eBay Inc has highlighted the market’s
importance.

Avito, which has more than 30 million monthly unique
visitors buying and selling everything from cars to real estate,
planned to use the proceeds to gain a bigger share in its key
Auto and Real Estate classifieds categories, it said on Tuesday.

Avito co-founder and Chief Executive Jonas Nordlander said
Avito aimed to be the most liquid online player in a market
where he expected further consolidation.

Cape Town-based Naspers, which has transformed itself into a
$29 billion internet powerhouse by buying businesses in
fast-growing markets, also has a stake in Russian
email-to-social networking group Mail.Ru.

The lead detective in the Oscar Pistorius murder investigation was taken off the case on Thursday after it emerged he was facing seven attempted murder charges for opening fire on a minibus full of passengers.

South African police have drawn criticism at home for their failure to bring down one of the world’s highest crime rates, as well as perceptions that officers lack basic skills and that political clout, not ability, determines promotion.

They drew global outrage in August, when police gunned down 34 striking miners in a single day, reviving memories of grisly human rights abuses under apartheid.

The Pistorius bail trial has now added to the embarrassment, as the track star’s defense team has uncovered a series of amateurish mistakes, forcing police to admit to running a sloppy investigation.

“Unfortunately there are too many instances of poor police work,” said Gerhard Kemp, a professor of criminal law at the University of Stellenbosch.

“It’s absolutely not CSI. It’s a totally different world.”

Warrant Officer Hilton Botha, a 24-year veteran of the force, was replaced as lead detective in the Pistorius case, after details of his involvement in the 2011 minibus shooting emerged.

The charges against Botha had been dropped but were reinstated on February 4 – 10 days before Pistorius shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria home.

Botha also withered under cross examination on Wednesday, when he was accused of contaminating the crime scene in Pistorius’s house and backtracked on details like the distance of witnesses from the home when they heard shouts and shots.

“The poor quality of evidence presented by the chief investigating officer exposed disastrous shortcomings in the state’s case,” lead defense lawyer Barry Roux argued, capping a day that was widely seen as a victory for the 26-year-old Pistorius.

It was not immediately clear if Botha’s actions would give Pistorius an edge in his bail hearing, which is expected to be concluded on Friday.

“No police force are a bunch of angels,” said one Johannesburg-based senior lawyer who declined to be identified because the sensitivity of the case.

“I’m not entirely sure – in a case based on witnesses and forensics – how the conduct of the investigating officer, or even just the officer responding to the call, is entirely relevant to the credibility of Oscar Pistorius’s statement to the court.”

CORRUPTION

After apartheid ended in 1994, Nelson Mandela’s ANC government tried to transform the police into an organization capable of serving the community rather than oppressing it.

But the force is seen as a warren of corruption and inefficiency.

Top pathologists say forensic laboratories have backlogs of work of up to 10 years, due to a chronic shortage of skilled staff, according to local media reports.

Investigators are often overwhelmed by their caseloads.

“Police are so overburdened with work it really doesn’t surprise me that they don’t spend a whole of time making sure they send in the best guy, or plan the investigation carefully,” Stellenbosch’s Kemp said.

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world and the highest number of reported rapes per capita of any Interpol member country.

Corruption hampers crimefighting.

The police commissioner is investigating claims by a police union that parts of a 464 million-rand ($53 million) DNA database machine were sold for scrap while about 500 million rand’s worth of evidence has been stolen from narcotics labs in the province home to Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Former police commissioner Jackie Selebi was sentenced two years ago to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes from a convicted drug smuggler.

Last year President Jacob Zuma was forced to sack Selebi’s successor, Bheki Cele, after the government’s corruption watchdog raised concerns about the police chief’s involvement in a questionable $100 million land deal.

After the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation” was more successful in transforming its judicial system, abolishing the death penalty and turning once-draconian courts into a transparent system that has won plaudits from international and local legal experts.

Pistorius will probably go on trial for murder within months.

“We don’t have juries, we have seasoned, hardened judges who have spent 10 years listening to every sob story on the planet,” said the Johannesburg lawyer.

“I think there’s more chance of justice being done than in a jury system. The caliber of our high court judges is still world class.”

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; editing by Andrew Roche)

Warrant officer Hilton Botha, a detective with 24 years on the force, also told the Pretoria magistrates court that Pistorius’ girlfriend, model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp, was hit by three bullets, in the head, elbow and hip.

Pistorius, a double amputee known as the “Blade Runner”, broke down in tears as Botha presented his testimony.

The shooting has stunned South Africa and the millions around the world who saw the track glory of the athlete, who had no lower legs, as an inspiring tale of triumph over adversity.

Steenkamp was in a locked toilet adjoining Pistorius’ bathroom when she was shot in the early hours of Thursday last week. Botha said the angle at which the shots were fired through the door suggested the shooter had aimed specifically to hit somebody on the toilet.

Botha, who arrived at the scene at 0415 local time (0215 GMT) to find Steenkamp dead at the bottom of the stairs, also said police had found unlicensed .38 ammunition in Pistorius’ house in an upmarket gated compound north of Pretoria.

In an affidavit delivered on Tuesday, Pistorius said he used to sleep with a 9-mm pistol under his bed and had grabbed it when he awoke in the middle of the night thinking an intruder had climbed through his bathroom window and entered the toilet.

The 26-year-old then described how he fired into the door in a blind panic, in the belief the intruder was lurking in the toilet.

He said he and Steenkamp, 30, had been asleep in bed before he woke up.

In contrast, lead prosecutor Gerrie Nel painted a picture of a premeditated killing, a crime which carries a life sentence in South Africa. “If I arm myself, walk a distance and murder a person, that is premeditated,” he told the packed courtroom on Tuesday.

The bail hearing is expected to conclude by the end of the week. (Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Ed Cropley and Pravin Char)

Reeva Steenkamp, a 30-year-old law graduate and model, died after being hit by three rounds from a 9-mm pistol, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.

Pistorius, 26, wept uncontrollably in court as Nel outlined details of a shooting that has stunned South Africa and the millions around the world who saw the double amputee’s track glory as an inspiring tale of triumph over adversity.

Later, in a dramatic affidavit read out by defence lawyer Barry Roux, Pistorius said he had been “deeply in love” with Steenkamp, whom he had been dating since November, and had no intention of killing her.

Having had previous death threats and break-ins, Pistorius said he slept with a 9-mm pistol under his bed in his plush Pretoria home in the heart of a well-secured gated community.

He and Steenkamp went to sleep on Wednesday night – the eve of Valentine’s Day – some time after 10 p.m., he said.

However, in the middle of the night, he awoke in pitch darkness and thought an intruder had climbed through a window and entered the toilet, Pistorius said.

Without putting on his prosthetic legs – contrary to the prosecution’s version of events – he moved on his stumps into the bathroom adjoining his bedroom and noticed the closed toilet door. He did not realise Steenkamp was behind it, he said.

He shouted for the intruder to get out of his house then fired several shots into the door, before calling to Steenkamp to phone the police.

When she did not respond, he grabbed a cricket bat to beat down the door and found her slumped on the floor, he said.

“I was absolutely mortified by the events and the devastating loss of my beloved Reeva,” he said in the affidavit.

As Roux read the statement, Pistorius sobbed unrestrainedly, prompting magistrate Desmond Nair to halt proceedings for several minutes. “You need to concentrate on what’s going on,” Nair told him.

The bail hearing was adjourned until 7:00 a.m. British time on Wednesday.

“AN ANGEL”

Nearly 1,000 km (600 miles) away, on South Africa’s windswept southern coast, scores of mourners gathered under cloudy skies in the city of Port Elizabeth for Steenkamp’s funeral.

Amid the grief, there was little sympathy for Pistorius, who at the time was weeping on a wooden bench in the spartan, brick-face courtroom in the capital.

“She was an angel. She was so soft, so innocent. Such a lovely person. It’s just sad that this could happen to somebody so good,” said Gavin Venter, an ex-jockey who worked for Steenkamp’s father.

“I’m disgusted with what he did. He must be dealt with harshly,” he added, shortly before Steenkamp’s cremation in the Victoria Park Crematorium. “Without a doubt he’s a danger to the public. He’ll be a danger to witnesses. He must stay in jail.”

The case has drawn further attention to endemic violence against women in South Africa after the gang-rape, mutilation and murder of a 17-year-old near Cape Town this month.

Members of the Women’s League of the ruling African National Congress protested outside the Pretoria court, waving placards saying: “No Bail for Pistorius” and “Rot in jail”.

Before Pistorius’s testimony, Nel, the lead prosecutor at the bail hearing, painted a picture of premeditated killing, which carries a life sentence in South Africa.

“If I arm myself, walk a distance and murder a person, that is premeditated,” he told the packed courtroom, arguing that Pistorius had time to think about what he was doing. “The door is closed. There is no doubt. I walk seven metres and I kill.”

“The motive is ‘I want to kill’. That’s it,” he added. “This deceased was in a 1.4 by 1.14 metre little room. She could go nowhere. It must have been horrific.”

SPONSORS DITCH PISTORIUS

The arrest of Pistorius stunned the millions who had watched in awe last year as the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter reached the semi-final of the 400 metres in the London Olympics, running on high-technology carbon fibre ‘blades’.

But the impact has been greatest in sports-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who had transcended the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

He carried South Africa’s flag at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, and U.S. magazine Sports Illustrated named him as one of the most inspiring figures of the year.

“Many questions are being asked, but we have no answers,” Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said in a statement.

The sprinter’s endorsements and sponsorships included sportswear giant Nike, British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler and were thought to be worth as much as $2 million (1.2 million pounds) a year.

In his affidavit, Pistorius said he earned 5.6 million rand (408,407 pounds) a year and owned properties worth nearly $1 million.

However, Nike and Mugler both said they had dropped Pistorius from advertising campaigns, while cosmetics firm Clarins said it was recalling its ‘A Man’ perfume range out “respect and compassion towards the families involved”.

Other sponsors have said they will make no decisions until the legal process has run its course.

Born without a fibula in either leg, Pistorius had his lower legs amputated as an 11-month-old baby but became the highest-profile athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games.

After the hour-long private ceremony in the cream-coloured hill-top church in Port Elizabeth, Steenkamp’s brother Adam and uncle Mike, fighting back tears, spoke briefly to reporters.

“There’s a space missing inside all the people that she knew that can’t be filled again,” Adam Steenkamp said. “We are going to keep all the positive things that we remember and know about my sister. We will miss her.”

(Additional reporting by Helen Nyambura in Port Elizabeth and Jon Herskovitz; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

The arrest of the 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic sprinter stunned millions across the world who held him up as a hero for triumphing over adversity to compete with able-bodied athletes at the highest level of sport.

His girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, was found shot dead in his Pretoria home in the early hours of Thursday, with initial reports suggesting Pistorius may have mistaken her for an intruder.

However, police said Steenkamp, who will be buried on Tuesday, was killed by more than one gunshot, that Pistorius was the only suspect and that neighbors had heard earlier disturbances.

They said a 9mm pistol was recovered at the house, where there was no sign of a break in.

Since the arrest, South African newspapers have published lurid, unconfirmed details of the killing. If true, they are likely to undermine any potential argument of self-defense, experts say.

His agent said Pistorius, who faces life in prison if found guilty, disputes the murder charge “in the strongest possible terms”.

Prosecutors are expected to oppose any request for bail at Tuesday’s hearing, suggesting they will have to present the court with the state’s full version of the shooting as laid out in the charge sheet.

Pistorius arrived at the court in a police car shortly before 0500 GMT. Proceedings were due to start at 0900 GMT, although chaotic scenes as more than 100 journalists jostled to get in to the courtroom, meant the hearing was delayed.

The case has also put a harsh spotlight on the violence against women endemic in South Africa, which is still reeling from the gang-rape, mutilation and murder of a 17-year-old near Cape Town this month.

Members of the Women’s League of the ruling African National Congress protested outside the building, waving placards saying: “No Bail for Pistorius”.

BURIAL

At his bail hearing on Friday, the athlete broke down in tears when the charges were read and prosecutors said they believed the killing was premeditated.

The hearing was adjourned after 40 minutes and Pistorius was taken back to the Pretoria police station where he has been held since. A statement from his family at the weekend said he was “numb” with shock and grief.

The case has gripped sport-mad South Africa, where Pistorius was seen as a rare hero who had transcended the racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

Steenkamp will be buried at a private family ceremony in Port Elizabeth. The coastal city was covered with a blanket of cloud on Tuesday as mourners and reporters gathered at the windswept hilltop Victoria Park Crematorium.

The law graduate appeared on television on Saturday in an “Island of Treasure” reality show filmed last year after her family gave permission for the program to be aired.

Pistorius’ endorsements and sponsorships, which include sportswear giant Nike, British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

Nike said on Monday it had dropped Pistorius from any future advertising campaigns. Other sponsors have said they will not make any decisions about continued support until the legal process has run its course.

However, Pistorius has cancelled scheduled track appearances in Australia, Brazil and Britain in the coming months to focus on his attempt to clear his name.

Born without a fibula in either leg, Pistorius runs on carbon fiber prosthetic blades after he underwent a double amputation as an 11-month-old baby. He was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the 400-metres semi-finals in London 2012.

In last year’s Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 meters in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades, but was quick to express regret for the comments.

(Additional reporting Helen Nyambura in Port Elizabeth and Jon Herskovitz; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Dressed in a dark suit, the 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic superstar stood with head bowed in front of magistrate Desmond Nair to the hear the charge of one count of murder read out.

He then started sobbing, covering his face with his hands.

“Take it easy. Come take a seat,” Nair told him.

The downfall of the track superstar has stunned a nation that reveres ‘the fastest man on no legs’ as a hero who triumphed over adversity to compete with able-bodied athletes at the highest levels of sport.

His girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, 30, was found shot dead in his plush Pretoria home in the early hours of Thursday, police said. The Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper said she had been hit four times, in the head, chest, pelvis and hand.

“The security guards found Pistorius by Steenkamp’s body in the bathroom,” the paper said on its website, citing a neighbor. “The door had bullet holes right through it.”

Early reports of the shooting in the early hours of Thursday suggested Pistorius may have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder, but police said neighbors had heard noises before the shots and that there had been previous “domestic” incidents at the house.

Pistorius was held overnight in a Pretoria police station. On Friday morning, he was led, flanked by family members and officers, to a police station wagon to be taken to the capital’s central magistrate’s court.

The hearing was delayed for two hours as his defense lawyers objected to the scrum of local and international reporters packed into the courtroom.

EMOTIONAL ICON

South African newspapers plastered the killing across their front pages, relegating a State of the Nation address by President Jacob Zuma in parliament to a distant second.

The coverage reflected shock and dismay at the fall of a sporting legend who commanded rare respect on all sides of South Africa’s racial divides.

“Golden Boy Loses Shine” ran a front page headline in the Sowetan, beside a picture of Pistorius, head bowed in a grey hooded tracksuit being led away from a police station.

Callers to morning radio shows expressed remorse at the death of Steenkamp, who had been due to give a talk at a Johannesburg school this week about violence against women.

There was also widespread disbelief at the fate of a sportsman regarded as a genuinely “good guy”.

“How is it possible for one so high to fall so low so quickly?” Talk Radio 702 host John Robbie said.

A 9 mm pistol was recovered from Pistorius’s modern two-storey house in the middle of a heavily guarded gated complex in the northern outskirts of the South African capital.

He was held overnight at Pretoria’s Boschkop police station after undergoing medical and forensic examinations, police said. Police have said they will oppose bail.

“He is doing well but very emotional” his lawyer, Kenny Oldwage, told SABC TV, but gave no further comment.

South Africa’s M-Net cable TV channel immediately pulled adverts featuring Pistorius off air but most of his sponsors, including sports apparel group Nike, said they would not make any decisions until the police investigation was completed.

Pistorius’ endorsements and sponsorships, which also include British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

OLYMPICS SETBACK

Pistorius, who was born without a fibula in both legs, was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the 400-metres semi-finals in London 2012.

In last year’s Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 meters in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades, but was quick to express regret for the comments.

South Africa has some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime, and many home owners have weapons to defend themselves against intruders, although Pistorius’s complex is surrounded by a three-meter high wall and electric fence.

Near the home, people who knew Pistorius recalled a much-loved local hero.

“Some of us were in tears,” said Precious, who works at a petrol station where Pistorius used to fill up his McLaren supercar, signing autographs and picking up the tab for people in the convenience store.

“He was just so kind to everyone,” said Precious, who declined to give her family name.

(Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Jon Boyle)

Dressed in a dark suit, the 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic superstar stood with head bowed in front of magistrate Desmond Nair to the hear the charge of one count of murder read out.

He then started sobbing, covering his face with his hands.

“Take it easy. Come take a seat,” Nair told him.

The downfall of the track superstar has stunned a nation that reveres ‘the fastest man on no legs’ as a hero who triumphed over adversity to compete with able-bodied athletes at the highest levels of sport.

His girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, 30, was found shot dead in his plush Pretoria home in the early hours of Thursday, police said. The Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper said she had been hit four times, in the head, chest, pelvis and hand.

“The security guards found Pistorius by Steenkamp’s body in the bathroom,” the paper said on its website, citing a neighbour. “The door had bullet holes right through it.”

Early reports of the shooting in the early hours of Thursday suggested Pistorius may have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder, but police said neighbours had heard noises before the shots and that there had been previous “domestic” incidents at the house.

Pistorius was held overnight in a Pretoria police station. On Friday morning, he was led, flanked by family members and officers, to a police station wagon to be taken to the capital’s central magistrate’s court.

The hearing was delayed for two hours as his defence lawyers objected to the scrum of local and international reporters packed into the courtroom.

EMOTIONAL ICON

South African newspapers plastered the killing across their front pages, relegating a State of the Nation address by President Jacob Zuma in parliament to a distant second.

The coverage reflected shock and dismay at the fall of a sporting legend who commanded rare respect on all sides of South Africa’s racial divides.

“Golden Boy Loses Shine” ran a front page headline in the Sowetan, beside a picture of Pistorius, head bowed in a grey hooded tracksuit being led away from a police station.

Callers to morning radio shows expressed remorse at the death of Steenkamp, who had been due to give a talk at a Johannesburg school this week about violence against women.

There was also widespread disbelief at the fate of a sportsman regarded as a genuinely “good guy”.

“How is it possible for one so high to fall so low so quickly?” Talk Radio 702 host John Robbie said.

A 9 mm pistol was recovered from Pistorius’s modern two-storey house in the middle of a heavily guarded gated complex in the northern outskirts of the South African capital.

He was held overnight at Pretoria’s Boschkop police station after undergoing medical and forensic examinations, police said. Police have said they will oppose bail.

“He is doing well but very emotional” his lawyer, Kenny Oldwage, told SABC TV, but gave no further comment.

South Africa’s M-Net cable TV channel immediately pulled adverts featuring Pistorius off air but most of his sponsors, including sports apparel group Nike, said they would not make any decisions until the police investigation was completed.

Pistorius’ endorsements and sponsorships, which also include British telecoms firm BT, sunglasses maker Oakley and French designer Thierry Mugler, are thought to be worth as much as $2 million a year.

OLYMPICS SETBACK

Pistorius, who was born without a fibula in both legs, was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the 400-metres semi-finals in London 2012.

In last year’s Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 metres in nine years. After the race he questioned the legitimacy of Brazilian winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades, but was quick to express regret for the comments.

South Africa has some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime, and many home owners have weapons to defend themselves against intruders, although Pistorius’s complex is surrounded by a three-metre high wall and electric fence.

Near the home, people who knew Pistorius recalled a much-loved local hero.

“Some of us were in tears,” said Precious, who works at a petrol station where Pistorius used to fill up his McLaren supercar, signing autographs and picking up the tab for people in the convenience store.

“He was just so kind to everyone,” said Precious, who declined to give her family name. (Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Jon Boyle)