‘We knew Oscar would be released’

EPA Oscar Pistorius will be released on correctional supervision on Tuesday. File photo: Kim Ludbrook

Pretoria - The parents of Reeva Steenkamp were neither upset nor shocked by the fact that their daughter’s killer Oscar Pistorius would be released on correctional supervision on Tuesday because they expected he would be released soon anyway.

This is according to family spokeswoman Tania Koen, who was among the first to receive news of Pistorius’s release at about 2pm on Thursday.
“I received the message a few minutes ago from the parole board,” Koen told the Pretoria News on Thursday. This was even before the meeting of the parole board to consider Pistorius’s release had adjourned and before word of his release within five days was officially out.

Last week the board postponed the hearing over Pistorius’s release to Thursday because it wanted to hear whether the Steenkamp family wanted to make new representations or not.

Koen said at the time the family would not try to keep Pistorius in jail by making new submissions. She said they stood by the representations they made in June, when it was decided to release him on August 21.

The family said at the time that although they felt 10 months in jail for killing their daughter was not enough, they had forgiven Pistorius because nothing would bring back their daughter.

“It does not matter to June and Barry whether he comes out or not, because Reeva is no longer here. Their lives must go on and they will not live their lives according to what happens to him. June will devote all her time to the Reeva Steenkamp Foundation.”

Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela confirmed Pistorius’s release on correctional supervision on Tuesday, but would not divulge the conditions of his release.

He, however, said two additional conditions to the “normal” conditions would be added, which is that Pistorius may not own or handle firearms and he must continue receiving psychotherapy.

Wolela said Pistorius would remain under correctional supervision until October 20, 2019. This is expected to mainly consist of house arrest, with agreed set times during which he may go to church, work and attend to other activities agreed between him and his correctional services officer. This could even include time for him to return to the athletics field for training.

His lawyer, Brian Webber, could not shed light on the parole conditions, other than to say they would be announced on Tuesday. Asked why his client was only being released then, Webber responded: “Why don’t you ask correctional services… I have no idea.”

Pistorius will be released two weeks before the State heads to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to ask that his culpable homicide conviction be overturned. The State is asking for a conviction for murder and if it succeeds and his sentence is upped, Pistorius would once again have to swop his Uncle Arnold’s Waterkloof mansion for his Pretoria prison cell.

The Pistorius family said they were not going to release a statement regarding his release.