Johannesburg - Oscar Pistorius plans to start a basketball programme for his fellow inmates, according to new details revealed by his brother about the Blade Runner’s life behind bars.
The athlete, who is serving five years for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, is also helping other prisoners, mostly TB sufferers, to get back into shape as they recover in the hospital wing where he is being held.
And although the Paralympic gold medallist is still coming to terms with his incarceration, which began last month, he has been inspired by the “beautiful stories” of other criminals who are now turning their lives around.
In a wide-ranging interview with YOU magazine, Pistorius’s older brother Carl, 29, provided the most detailed picture yet of his brother’s new life at Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria – and played down rumours that the double amputee was getting special treatment.
Pistorius, who 10 days ago turned 28, spends 17 hours a day in his 1.8m by 2.5m cell, with just an hour a day to spend outdoors and another to exercise in a weights room alongside other prisoners.
Rather than having a private bathroom, as had been reported, Carl said his brother has been allocated a stool to sit on in a communal shower room.
Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for shooting his model and law graduate girlfriend on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Once a week, he is allowed a 45-minute visit – which is co-ordinated by his sister Aimee, 25, who has created a WhatsApp phone group to keep the large, extended family informed of the sprinter’s news.
Pistorius often goes unshaven and is invariably dressed in the obligatory prison-issue jump suit.
He relies on visitors to leave cash at the tuckshop to boost his strict prison diet with favourites such as canned pilchards and baked beans, Carl revealed.
During one recent visit, Pistorius told his siblings about an idea he had for an initiative to involve some of his 7 000 fellow inmates in playing basketball.
“He asked family members to donate balls rather than buy him gifts for his birthday,” Carl said.
“He is still waiting for permission from the area commissioner of correctional services to start it.”
Pistorius may not get early release from the gang-ridden jail.
At the start of his sentence for the culpable homicide of Steenkamp, whom he shot multiple times as she cowered behind a bathroom door, prison authorities drew up a rehabilitation programme for Pistorius.
After completing an element called New Beginnings, he told his older brother “how insightful and stimulating it was” to hear how other prisoners had turned their lives around since jail.
“He’s encountering many beautiful stories from prisoners. There are people there who have committed crimes but whose lives have changed,” said Carl, a mining consultant and part-time car dealer who is growing his beard until his younger brother is allowed to serve out his sentence under home arrest.
The siblings don’t discuss any long-term plans, of returning to training, or writing a book, he said.
“We live in the hope that he’ll be out (under house arrest), but it’s a five-year sentence,” Carl said.
“There are surely desires in his heart, and over time they’ll change. But he now lives moment by moment.
“There’s no fairytale.”
For now, he said, the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter is content to share his expertise with his jail neighbours.
“He often gives fellow prisoners in the hospital wing, mostly recovering from tuberculosis, advice on how to exercise and to strengthen their bodies,” Carl said.
Last month it emerged that one of the prisoners Pistorius had struck up a relationship with is notorious Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir, who is being held on remand in the hospital wing, who had agreed to share his gym equipment with Pistorius.
Carl has only recently been discharged from hospital himself following a car crash that left him in a coma.
Pistorius was a regular visitor to his older brother’s hospital bed between court appearances during his trial.
One anecdote Carl shared with You magazine, about his and his sister’s recent birthday visit to their jailed brother, indirectly revealed the underlying preoccupation the family has with firearms.
They had brought helium balloons to wave at Pistorius through the thick, smeared glass that separated them and had swallowed some of the gas before singing Happy Birthday in high-pitched voices.
But after Pistorius was led away and they got up to leave, one of the balloons floated towards the ceiling.
“Then suddenly, there’s a loud bang, giving everyone a fright,” Carl recounted.
“The prison guard reaches for his pistol, me and Aimee dive to the floor, unsure if a shot has been fired.”
When they realise it is just a balloon that has been burst in a ceiling fan, they dissolve into laughter, “until we’re almost in tears”, he added.
Daily Mail