African National Congress spokesperson: Oscar Pistorius sentence 'insulting'

South African Judge Thokozile Masipa said “there is no indication at all” that former Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius and the girlfriend he murdered were in an abusive relationship.

African National Congress Women’s League spokesperson Jacqui Mofokeng, however, called the Valentine’s Day 2013 murder of Reeva Steenkamp a clear case of gender violence shortly after Masipa found “substantial and compelling circumstances” to levy Pistorius with a six-year prison term, a fraction of the mandatory 15-year prison sentence.

“The judgment is an insult to women,” Mofokeng said in a statement. “It’s an insult we saw coming a mile off (and an) increasingly mundane insult to which we have all become accustomed.

“We owe Reeva Steenkamp and women everywhere our outrage today, however subdued and demoralized we might feel. Because we know, deep down, that six years for murder isn’t just insulting. It’s dangerous.”

Mofokeng was approached during a break in last month’s sentencing hearing by the 29-year-old Paralympic gold medalist known as the “Blade Runner.” The Citizen, a South African newspaper, reported that Pistorius asked Mofokeng to represent the needs of the disabled just as she does for women.

“I said to him your disability doesn’t make you run away from the facts, but I wish you strength,” Mofokeng told The Citizen. “I wish you to take this thing as it comes and go and serve (your time in jail) because nobody has a right to kill.”

Pistorius, who became the first amputee to compete in the Olympics when he represented South Africa in the 2012 London Games, chose not to take the witness stand at the sentencing hearing, although he walked around the courtroom without his prosthetic legs.

While Masipa noted before she rendered her sentence that Pistorius and Steenkamp were not in an abusive relationship, there were signs that the couple had issues. Masipa presided over the original 2014 that ended with Pistorius found guilty of manslaughter.prosecutors showed a WhatsApp message Steenkamp sent Pistorius weeks before her death.

“You have picked on me excessively,” Steenkamp wrote. “I do everything to make you happy and you do everything to throw tantrums, "I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and of how you will react to me.”

New York-based defense attorney Barry Slotnick told Paste BN Sports that Masipa continued to show leniency to Pistorius, who she called "a fallen hero" on Wednesday.

"This is the same judge who felt Pistorius was guilty of manslaughter instead of murder," Slotnick said. "Who he is played a role in his sentencing. While six years is a rather long time, that's not a lot of time for a murder charge."

Pistorius shot multiple times through a bathroom door, killing Steenkamp. Pistorius claims he thought he was shooting at an intruder. 

Slotnick said he expects Pistorius to serve only part of his sentence before he's released on parole.

PHOTOS: THE TRIAL OF OSCAR PISTORIUS