Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius sit on the chair at the Pretoria High Court to attend summary judgement on his trial on 6 July 2016. Picture: Marco Longari / AFP / Pool/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has confirmed that convicted killer Oscar Pistorius has met with the parents of Reeva Steenkamp for a victim-offender dialogue.
The department on Friday said Pistorius was transferred back to the Atteridgeville Correctional Facility following the meeting, which offers “an opportunity for the offender and victims to engage with one another”.
Pistorius had previously been moved to the St Albans Correctional Centre in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, for the victim-offender dialogue in November 2021.
“DCS can now confirm that the victim-offender dialogue process has been fulfilled.
ALSO READ: Oscar Pistorius: More needs to happen before a murderer is granted parole
“There is a need to emphasise that inmates are required to partake in the victim-offender dialogue as part of their rehabilitation path wherein they are able to acknowledge the harm they have caused to their victims and the society at large,” the department’s spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said in a statement.
Nxumalo, however, pointed out that participating in the victim-offender dialogue did not “equate to the end of a sentence or a parole placement”.
Therefore, Pistorius will continue serving his sentence in prison.
According to government, “the offender, out of his own free will, asks for forgiveness, but the victim has no obligation to accept the apology”.
In an interview with The Times in April, Pistorius’ lawyer, Julian Knight, accused June and Barry Steenkamp of a “deliberate attempt to punish him and frustrate” his parole process.
Knight told the UK newspaper that Pistorius had been met with “one delay after another“, adding that his client had a “squeaky clean prison record and meets all the requirements for parole”.
Pistorius was initially sentenced to six years behind bars for culpable homicide in 2016 after he was convicted of shooting and killing Steenkamp through the door of a locked bathroom cubicle inside the former athlete’s home in Silverlakes, east of Pretoria.
READ MORE: ‘Pistorius not yet eligible for parole’ say Reeva’s parents
Later, the charge was changed to murder and an additional 13 years was added to his sentence, following an appeal by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for a longer prison sentence.
The former athlete was initially only set to be eligible for parole in March 2023, but the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) failed to account for “time served” when Pistorius’ charge was upgraded from culpable homicide to murder in 2017.
The SCA did not consider that Pistorius had already served more than 500 days behind bars.
In May, Sindisiwe Precious Manqele, who was convicted for the murder of her boyfriend Nkululeko “Flabba” Habedi, was released on parole.
Manqele was granted parole in terms of Section 73 of the Correctional Services Act, “which determines the minimum period of sentence that must be served before consideration may be granted for possible placement”.
She is obligated to comply with specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until her sentence expires on 23 May 2028.
Manqele, who also partook in the victim-offender dialogue programme before her parole could be granted, was sentenced to 12 years behind bars after stabbing Habedi to death at his home in Alexandra in September 2015.
Habedi, who was stabbed on the chest, was a Hip-Hop artist who became a household name with his Skwatta Kamp group.
NOW READ: Pistorius was ‘unstable long before the murder’
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