Therefore the parole board’s decision, taken on June 5, to release him into correctional supervision, was premature.
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Pistorius is serving a five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot dead through a toilet door at his home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013.
They’ve responded to Wednesday’s surprise announcement by Justice Minister Michael Masutha to suspend the Paralympic athlete’s release from prison.
Reeva Steenkamp’s family has said they don’t welcome the decision delaying Oscar Pistorius’s release on parole, nor do they feel any relief at the news.
It was unclear when the board would be able to meet again, justice department spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said, but it was unlikely a new decision could be made by Friday’s initially planned release date.
Wednesday would also have been Steenkamp’s 32nd birthday, and her parents earlier held a beachside ceremony in their hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa’s south coast.
South Africa’s justice minister said yesterday, shocking the athlete’s family as they prepared for his homecoming. “We accept the decision made by the minister of justice, and are considering our options”, said Pistorius family spokesman Anneliese Burgess told AFP. But he says he mistook her for an intruder. Pistorius was acquitted of the charge of murder, but nonetheless convicted of culpable homicide.
In June, the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board said Pistorius would leave the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria on August 21. Once a poster boy for sport, Pistorius – whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old – has lost his lucrative contracts and has no immediate hope of salvaging his athletic career whatever the outcome of the appeal.
The double amputee won international fame after racing against able-bodied competitors in the 2012 London Olympics, and his trial was broadcast live around the world. He would have served out the rest of his sentence under house arrest.
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The athlete, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of the carbon-fibre prosthetics he used during his career on the track, was expected to be confined to the home of his uncle, Arnold, a high-walled manor in the leafy suburb of Waterkloo. It was unhappy that he would be released during South Africa’s “Women’s Month”. “I think he’s getting to understand you have to control your anger and temper”, said Modise.
