Oscar processed and placed in cell

“He is a little bit tired and tense but the chaplain went to talk to him,” he told Sapa.

“He is deurmekaar, as they say in Afrikaans. After he saw the chaplain our psychologist went to see him, just to try talk to him.”

Monama said Pistorius had been placed in a side ward single cell in the hospital wing of the Pretoria prison.

“[This is] because of his vulnerability… In terms of the Correctional Services Act, it is my responsibility to protect any vulnerable person,” he said.

The hospital wing had 24-hour observation and two nurses on duty. There were also two correctional services officers guarding the area.

Monama said this was not just because of Pistorius but was routine for the hospital wing.

Correctional services department spokesman Manelisi Wolela said when Pistorius started his sentence on Tuesday he was joined by eight other disabled offenders.

“Now, the hospital section of the centre accommodates two offenders with prosthetic legs, two blind offenders and five offenders on wheelchairs nine in total,” he said in a statement.

“The department makes provision for this important but very small sector of offenders as part ensuring effective implementation of Section 35 of the Constitution, Correctional Services Act and the White Paper on Corrections which oblige government to eliminate discrimination and provide appropriate facilities for inmates with disabilities.”

In the past ten years, correctional services had on average accommodated 128 disabled inmates per year, said Wolela.

This constituted only 0.08 percent of the country’s 157,000 prison population.

Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. For discharging a firearm at Tasha’s restaurant in January 2013, he was sentenced to three years in jail, suspended for five years.

The sentences would run concurrently, Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled.

Pistorius made his way down to the holding cells below the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

He was transported to the Kgosi Mampuru prison in an SA Police Service Nyala armoured vehicle.

Monama said that when Pistorius arrived at the prison he was taken into the reception where his fingerprints were taken and he was searched.

His details were then entered into a computer system and a prison number was generated for the “blade runner”.

A nurse was there to compile a medical file.

“After completing the medical, the reception person will give him prison clothing and then you take your private clothes and put it in a bag,” Monama said.

Asked what Pistorius could expect for his first dinner in prison, Monama said he did not know but assured that it would be a good meal.

The meals were provided by an outside contractor.

“People here get three meals a day. They’re cooking nice food. You’ll get nice food… we take care of the people,” he said.

– Sapa