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Johannesburg — The privacy of offenders — including that of former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius — may not be invaded, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said yesterday. This followed numerous requests from media houses for more information after Pistorius was released on Monday night from the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison on correctional supervision.
Department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said in a statement yesterday afternoon that as per the Correctional Services Act all people under, what he called community corrections, had to be supervised. “Such supervision must not invade the privacy of the person concerned more than is necessary to ensure compliance with the conditions of the community corrections imposed.”
The department would not publicly disclose any specific details about any offender. “As DCS has provided sufficient information on Pistorius, henceforth, no additional information on the said offender will be publicly disclosed,” Wolela said. Wolela reiterated that the decision to release Pistorius, a day earlier than planned was not preferential treatment.
He said it was purely an operational decision taken by officials and was not the first time this had happened. The parole board decided that Pistorius would be released into correctional supervision yesterday, it was announced last Thursday. Instead, he was snuck out of prison in Pretoria on Monday night. The former athlete’s lawyer Brian Webber told The Citizen he was home shortly after 2200hrs. — The Citizen.
derick.khumalo