Pretoria - Reeva Steenkamp’s family has expressed outrage after her killer, Oscar Pistorius, received more privileges in jail.
Reacting to news that Pistorius’s prisoner category had been raised, the slain model’s uncle Mike Steenkamp, said on Wednesday: “Clearly, the Correctional Services Department has a short memory (about what Pistorius did).
“If they grant these things they must think he is a model prisoner.”
Pistorius was changed from Category B to Category A status, which means he may now have contact visits, have his own radio in his cell and wear jewellery.
He is also allowed to make 24 phone calls a year instead of the usual six, he may take up a hobby that doesn’t involve sharp objects, and his allowance was increased from R100 to R150.
Pistorius was sent to Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru II Prison four months ago for the killing of his girlfriend Reeva at his home on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He was sentenced to five years for shooting her four times through a locked toilet door.
He might be released into house arrest in August, but an appeal by the State against both the conviction and the sentence could prevent this.
Gauteng Correctional Services spokesman Ofentse Morwane said the Pistorius’s reclassification is not extraordinary, as all inmates are reviewed periodically by prisons’ case management committees.
Daily Voice