At least South Africa has the world’s best murder trials

 Johannesburg

I was astonished, in London the other week, to discover how closely you Britons were following the Oscar Pistorius trial. I was invited to Rosie Boycott’s breakfast club, which meets on Friday mornings in a west London coffee house. The table was full of charming old geezers of approximately my vintage, all clearly Oxbridge men of the most civilised variety and yet as taken with the Pistorius drama as any Hello! magazine subscriber.

Why did the Oscar trial grip the world’s imagination? Some say it is because of the blade runner’s novel handicap. Others put it down to feminism — women everywhere were pissed off by what they took to be the cold-blooded murder of ‘one of us’. My take: do not underestimate the fact that Oscar and his model girlfriend Reeva were young and beautiful and seemed to be living a magical life of fast cars, fancy nightclubs and fashion shoots on tropical islands.

The glamour factor might also explain the world’s fascination with the Dewani murder case, presently playing out in Cape Town. Here again, the protagonists were rich and good-looking and stars moreover of reams of CCTV footage of themselves in their natural habitat — the corridors and reception areas of a five-star hotel on Cape Town’s waterfront.

My favourite bit of CCTV footage begins at 5.17 p.m. on Friday 13 November 2010. The camera is focused on a twilit courtyard. A taxi appears and disgorges a lovely creature who sashays into the lobby of the Cape Grace hotel. This is the newly-wed Anni Dewani, 28. She’s tall, willowy, elegant even in jeans and trainers.

Her husband Shrien Dewani, 30, lingers in the taxi, negotiating some sort of deal with driver Zola Tongo. Within minutes, they reach agreement in principle, and Mr Dewani comes striding into the hotel, looking like a Bollywood idol with his designer stubble and collar turned up Elvis-style.

For the Dewanis, this is day 15 of a nuptial rite that began in India with a three-day party for 500 guests before moving to the luxury Chitwa Chitwa safari lodge in Kruger Park, where a chalet for two costs around £1,000 a night.