The mother of murdered model Reeva Steenkamp who was shot dead by boyfriend Oscar Pistorius has been rushed to hospital after suffering a stroke at her South African farm.
June Steenkamp, 78, was found collapsed on the floor at Ostara Farm near Port Elizabeth on Monday and taken to hospital where she immediately underwent a brain scan.
Her daughter Reeva, 29, was killed by Paralympics medallist Pistorius, 38, when he shot her four times through the bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He was released in January last year from the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre into the care of his uncle Arnold Pistorius after serving nine years.
June’s daughter Simone, 59, said from her new home in the UK: ‘I spoke to mum on Sunday and she was full of laughter as usual and was just her normal funny self.
‘Then on Monday I got a text to say she had collapsed and had a stroke and was very disorientated and although she is now conscious she does not know where she is.
June’s daughter said her mother is ‘awake and in bed in hospital but is not aware of where she is or what has happened.
‘She is slowly getting better but is now with it yet.’
June Steenkamp, whose daughter was shot dead by Paraolympian Oscar Pistorius in 2013, is in hospital after suffering a stroke. June pictured in 2023 arriving at a parole hearing for Pistorius
Her daughter Reeva (pictured) was killed by Paralympics medallist Pistorius, 38, when he shot her four times through the bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
In this Nov. 4, 2012 file photo, South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, right, and Reeva Steenkamp arrive for an awards ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa
June had been on antibiotics for three months with a bladder infection before suffering from a stroke, her daughter said, and added that she had been struggling with the recent death of her husband Barry.
‘We have very little money and the farm sold for just £45,000 and we were going to put that down with some of our savings on a deposit on a little cottage here in the UK.
‘Mum is a public hospital as she does not have health care insurance but her friend and lawyer Tania Koen has launched a fundraiser to try to get her into private hospital quickly.
‘I am just devastated because I thought at last we would both be together again and a long way away from Pistorius and all the dreadful memories of what he did to Reeva.
‘But what with her murder and then losing Barry and now mum having a stroke it seems like everything is conspiring against us while Pistorius is out there free and healthy.
‘I read he has a new girlfriend and is back out running and doing triathlons and even has a part time job so his life is ticking along nicely while ours just goes the other way.
‘I just hope mum gets better soon but they have already said it is going to be a lengthy rehabilitation and to be quite plain I can’t afford to get back and be with her right now.
‘I have to work to pay my rent and I can’t survive without my job or afford to fly and live in South Africa while mum gets better without a work so I am in a terrible place now.
‘Everything was just perfect until Pistorius did what he did to Reeva’ she said.
With former racehorse trainer and husband Barry unwell after suffering two strokes during Pistorius’s trial and unable to work it fell to long suffering wife June to work.
She ran the family pub The Barking Spider at Greenbushes a suburb of Port Elizabeth – now known as Gqeberha – but that went bust after Covid forced it to close down.
Reeva’s sister June worked long hours to keep her and her mother afloat and earlier this year she moved to the UK to prepare a new home for her mother to emigrate to.
But she has struggled to find work and gets by as a cleaner and is renting a room at a lodging house but hopes to move onto a more secure and better paid job in future.
June’s friend and family lawyer Tania Koen has launched an appeal for Reeva’s mum.
She said:’I’m reaching out with a heavy heart to let you know June suffered a stroke on September 1 and is in a government hospital where she received urgent care.
‘June is facing a long road to recovery and is in need of considerable rehabilitation.
‘To ensure she gets the necessary care and treatment a fund has been set up for her care and rehabilitation which could take some time according to doctors’ she said.
Any surplus money from the fund will be donated to the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation which was set up in the murdered model’s name to fight GBV.
On the anniversary of Reeva’s murder evert year and on Christmas and New Years Day both June and Simone would light a remembrance candle in her name.
June wrote in a victim impact statement read at Pistorius’s parole hearing that she and husband Barry had suffered enduring pain and devastation at Reeva’s loss.
After husband Barry’s death in September 2023, she said: ‘I feel like I am in a bottomless black hole of pain and loneliness. Barry died with a broken heart’.
Pistorius is on parole until his sentence ends in 2029 and is banned from alcohol or speaking to the media and cannot leave Pretoria without police permission.
