Women's rights activists hit out at edited clip of shooting victim

It was billed as a fitting tribute to "an intelligent, beautiful and amazing woman" but the airing of a Caribbean reality TV show featuring the girlfriend of Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius two days after she was shot dead has upset some South Africans.

Reeva Steenkamp poses on set during the shooting of the reality show Tropika Island of Treasure, which premiered on television on Saturday. South Africa's national broadcaster screened the show featuring the dead model girlfriend of double amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius, two days after she was shot and killed at Pistorius' home. Stimulii Via / Associated Press

In particular, women's rights activists criticized an edited clip at the start of Saturday night's Tropika Island of Treasure in which law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp talked about her "exit".

"I think that the way you go out, not just your journey in life but the way that you go out and you make your exit is so important," she said, leaning against a palm tree in a pre-recorded interview on the show's set in Jamaica.

At the end of the tribute, presumably recorded when she was voted off the show, she blows kisses to the camera and said: "I'm going to miss you all so much. I love you very, very much."

Sharon Steenkamp, Reeva's cousin, said the model and law graduate was proud of being in the show.

A fellow contestant on the show told AP Television News that Steenkamp "was always making sure everyone was OK".

"Fun, crazy, loving, beautiful, gorgeous. She really was an angel and I still haven't come to terms with what happened," Katleho Molai said of Steenkamp. "I haven't really eaten, I'm struggling to sleep. So it's been really hard to come to terms with what's happened to her."

Pistorius was charged on Friday with murdering Steenkamp early on the previous day, although his family has denied the charge.

Rachel Jewkes, a gender and health researcher at the South African Medical Research Council, said the clips were particularly insensitive in a country where a woman is estimated to be killed by her partner every eight hours.

"There was a big question about whether it should have been shown at all, or whether they were trying to get audience ratings off the fact she had died," Jewkes said.

"These sort of quotes don't make you feel any better about the suggestion they are exploiting her death."

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