By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Convicted murderer and former Olympian and Paralympian, Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on Friday as the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) confirmed his parole as of January 5.
The parole was granted around 11 years after he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the decision taken by the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (CSPB) on 24 November 2023 to place Pistorius on parole remains valid and is to be enforced.
“Pistorius shall be admitted into the system of Community Corrections, and will be monitored until the expiry date of his sentence in 2029. An elevated public profile linked to Pistorius does not make him different from other inmates nor warrant inconsistent treatment.
“The details of transportation plans and time of release shall not be made public. Disclosing such details may result in a security threat for the inmate and other stakeholders involved. Therefore, DCS has to carefully manage that particular risk,” Nxumalo said.
Nxumalo said, like other parolees, Pistorius is restricted from conducting media interviews.
“South Africa opted for a victim-centred criminal justice system. As a result, inmates and parolees are never paraded. Therefore, media opting to camp outside any correctional facility may not be prevented from carrying out their work, as per their line of duty, but it would not be possible for them to get shots nor moving visuals of Pistorius.”
Nxumalo added that general parole conditions will apply to Pistorius.
“He will be expected to be home at particular hours of the day. He may not consume alcohol and other prohibited substances. Participation in other programmes that would have been identified by the CSPB will also be compulsory for him.”
His first parole bid collapsed in March because he had not completed the minimum detention period. That was later ruled a mistake by Constitutional Court, leading to the new parole hearing.
Under South African law, all offenders are entitled to be considered for parole once they have served half their total sentence.
Reeva Steenkamp, who was 29 when she died, was a law graduate and successful model who also worked as a TV presenter and appeared in a reality show called Tropika Island of Treasure.
Steenkamp was three months into her relationship with Pistorius when he fired four shots with a pistol through the door of a toilet cubicle at his house in Pretoria in the early hours of Valentine’s day.
He was convicted of murder in 2015 at the Supreme Court of Appeal having initially been convicted of the lesser offence of culpable homicide.
Pistorius’s lower legs were amputated when he was less than a year old. He subsequently relied on prosthetics and became a world-renowned athlete known as the “blade runner”.
He won multiple gold medals at the Paralympics. He also competed against non-disabled athletes at the London 2012 Olympics.