The department said in a statement that Justice Minister Michael Masutha is checking to see if the decision by a parole board to approve Pistorius for house arrest was correct.
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That would be 10 months, and when the decision was made in June, Pistorius had served only six months, leading the ministry to note, “the offender was not eligible to be considered [for release] at all”.
Oscar Pistorius leaves North Gauteng High Court during a break on the third day of his trial accused of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on March 5, 2014 in Pretoria, South Africa.
His decision will be announced before Friday, the department said.
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 28-year-old Pistorius was sentenced under a specific section of the Criminal Procedure Act, which entitles the parole board to place the prisoner on corrective supervision at the one-sixth mark of a sentence.
The athlete, Oscar Pistorius is to be paroled on Friday 21 after spending 10 months in jail.
For those not familiar with the Oscar Pistorius case, he was convicted of culpable homicide for his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
The global Paralympic Committee ruled in October that Pistorius will not be able to compete at any major event, including Rio 2016, for five years, even if he was to be released before his five-year sentence is complete.
The Olympic athlete insists he mistook Ms Steenkamp for an intruder.
A source on the Pistorius legal team said recently: “The appeal court can’t send him back to prison, they can only order a retrial”.
Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford, who is in Port Elizabeth, said: “We got at early indication last night that the justice minister appeared to be unhappy with this (the release) and then it was confirmed a short while ago”.
Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp at an awards ceremony in 2012.
But the judge said the prosecution did establish Pistorius was “negligent” when he fired his 9-mm pistol four times through the closed bathroom door.
State prosecutors want his conviction to be reviewed and converted to murder, with a minimum sentence of 15 years.
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Pistorius, whose legs were amputated before his first birthday, was famed for his track career.
