South Africa’s Justice Minister said on Tuesday he was seeking legal advice on whether the parole board was right to release Oscar Pistorius on house arrest on Friday after serving a sixth of his five year sentence for killing his girlfriend. Under the legal system Pistorius became eligible for parole under “correctional supervision” after serving just one-sixth of his sentence.
Oscar Pistorius, the five-year jail sentence he received for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of St Valentine’s morning, 2013, has turned into just 10 months behind bars.
This Friday, the Paralympic athlete, convicted last September of manslaughter and sentenced the following month, will swap Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria for his uncle’s palatial home in the city’s upmarket Waterkloof suburb.
However the justice minister’s comments follow a petition from the Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa, who have described the athlete’s early release as “outrageous” and “an insult” to victims of abuse.
The Steenkamp family commemorated Reeva’s birthday in a private ceremony in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday morning. Reeva would have turned 32. Reeva’s parents Barry and June, her sister Simone and four other family members gathered at the Hobie Beach in Summerstrand where they placed flowers in the ocean.
In the meantime the South African National Prosecuting Authority has filed court papers to appeal the Paralympian’s culpable homicide conviction.
