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Pretoria — Camera crews, photographers and reporters milled around the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria yesterday morning, in anticipation of the possible release of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. The Correctional Services Department have been stingy with information on his parole review hearing happening yesterday, even declining to comment on an eNCA report that the board would meet in Durban and that his lawyers were not allowed to attend.
Journalists speculated over whether Pistorius would indeed be released yesterday; and if so, which prison entrance he would use — the front or the back.
A correctional services officer who asked not to be named said that they had not been briefed about any special measures to take. He said most prisoners used the main entrance to come in and out of the prison but it was possible that special provisions could be made for the athlete.
In statement to the media, Correctional Services’s Manelisi Wolela said this week: “The Parole Review Board is an independent structure from the Department of Correctional Services and its Chairperson will determine if and when the announcement of their session’s results will be announced.”
He referred further queries to the Justice Department, saying the matter was referred to the Parole Review Board by Justice Minister Michael Masutha, but the department has been tight-lipped on the hearing.
Meanwhile, journalists camping outside the house of Oscar Pistorius’s uncle were told by his cousin that he would not be released soon. A man who looks similar to one of those who were seen protecting Pistorius during the trial arrived at his uncle Arnold’s house in Pretoria yesterday afternoon.
The man went into the house and then was picked up by a woman outside the home in the quiet leafy suburb. She was later identified as Oscar Pistorius’s cousin. A small media contingent stood outside the house.
As the woman reversed the car out of the driveway she spoke to journalists “He is not coming out now],” she said. When a journalist said, “We don’t know”, she responded: “We know”. The woman then left the premises..— AFP.
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