Pistorius to be released on parole on January 5
After spending many years behind bars, Pistorius will be out in the new year.
Oscar Pistorius will be spending yet another Christmas behind bars.
Pistorius (37) appeared before a parole board at a correctional centre outside Pretoria, where he is currently detained, on November 24.
The board ruled he can be released on parole on January 5, 2024.
Pistorius sentenced in 2017
In 2017, Pistorius was sentenced for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp four years previously.
He lost his first bid for parole in March this year when the board determined he had not completed the minimum detention period required before parole can be considered.
The Constitutional Court later ruled that that decision was in error, paving the way for a new hearing.
Parole boards are independent of the Department of Correctional Services.
Departmental spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Pistorius had completed all programmes in his correctional services sentence plan.
He said the board considered all the assessment reports from specialists like welfare workers and criminologists to ascertain if Pistorius was ready to be reintegrated into society.
“It is critical to highlight, that correctional supervision and parole boards are independent structures and ought to be allowed to render their services without any due interference or influence,” said Nxumalo.
“The parole board conducted its business as per the procedure manual. It is upon the parole board to work out the placement date should an inmate be declared ready to be placed on parole.”
The Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation extended thoughts to Steenkamp’s mother, June, who did not attend the hearing.
On August 19 she marked what would have been her murdered daughter’s 40th birthday and less than a month later, on September 14, her husband Barry passed away in his sleep, aged 80.
June Steenkamp’s victim statement
Rob Matthews read June Steenkamp’s victim impact statement to the media.
Matthews is the father of murdered student Leigh Matthews.
The Steenkamps got to know Rob and Sharon Matthews as they share a legal representative, Eastern Cape lawyer, Tania Koen.
Steenkamp had written that Reeva’s birth was a miracle as doctors had predicted she would have difficulty conceiving after a miscarriage.
June was proud of Reeva for achieving excellence as an equestrian, model as well as obtaining her law qualification and becoming an advocate for women fighting domestic abuse and violence.
She wrote that before her death, Reeva had expressed a wish to get married and have babies.
Steenkamp remarked on how those dreams as well as their own as parents for their daughter could never come true.
She declared that her husband had died of a broken heart because of Reeva’s death, and she still did not believe Pistorius’s version of what happened on the evening of the murder.
She also said she did not believe he had been rehabilitated.
Lawyer Corne Dormehl led Pistorius’ board appearance.
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