Pretoria - Oscar Pistorius will face a bleak and uncertain weekend in jail, with his family saying no decision regarding his situation had been taken at this stage. “The family will take their time to calmly consider the way forward,” said spokeswoman, Anneliese Burgess.
It is uncertain when Pistorius will be released from the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria, but it is certain he will not be released on Friday, as previously promised by the parole board.
It is also not clear whether his legal team will launch an urgent application to compel Correctional Services to free him on correctional supervision.
The registrar’s office at the high court in Pretoria, by closing time on Thursday, confirmed it had not yet received such an application. Pistorius’s lawyer, Brian Webber, could not be reached for comment about a possible urgent application.
The athlete’s hopes to swop his dingy prison cell for his uncle Arnold’s Waterkloof mansion were dashed by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha this week.
Masutha suspended the decision to release the Paralympian on Friday and referred the matter to the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review Board for reconsideration.
The minister obtained advice on the legality of setting a date for his release before he had served the required 10 months of his jail term.
Pistorius was convicted on a charge of culpable homicide and sentenced in terms of a provision in law whereby he only had to serve one sixth of his sentence (10 months), before he was released on correctional supervision.
The 10 months lapse on Friday, but the minister said the decision to release him was taken in June, while he had served only slightly more than six months of his jail term. The minister said this decision was made prematurely.
If Pistorius had to wait for the parole appeal body to convene, he could remain in jail for another four months, as the body only convenes a few times a year.
His legal team could, however, launch an urgent application asking that the minister’s decision to refer the matter to the body, be overturned.
If this is refused, they can ask the judge to order the body to convene as a matter of urgency and rule that Pistorius be freed in the meantime.
The parole review board has up to four months to conclude its decision on when Pistorius can be released from prison, a Justice Ministry spokesman said on Thursday. “The review board has four months in which to conclude the matter,” said Justice Ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga.
But a senior advocate with vast knowledge on parole matters, said the most sensible way forward would be to ask for an order that the appeal body convene as a matter of urgency and make a decision regarding Pistorius’s release. “The 10 months lapse (on Friday), so there should no longer be a problem on the side of the minister if the appeal board now decided to free him. It should be a short and uncomplicated argument before court.”
The advocate said the court could set time-frames in place for the board to come to a decision, which would mean Pistorius would not have to spend months in jail. He, however, doubted that the application, if brought, would serve before court on an extremely urgent basis. “It is not as if a person’s liberty is at stake here. His liberty had already been taken away. A few more days won’t matter. I cannot see such an application, if launched, being heard within the next few days.”
The advocate said in terms of court rules, a respondent (in not extremely urgent cases), needed at least a day or more to respond to an application. In terms of the practice manual in Pretoria, an applicant had to launch an application by noon on a Thursday, prior to the start of the urgent court week on a Tuesday. No such application was filed by noon on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Women’s Movement of SA on Thursday welcomed the decision by the justice minister to suspend Pistorius’s release.
“We wanted to make it clear that it was a blessing in disguise that the minister could see our challenges as women,” the movement’s Gauteng co-convener Jacqui Mofokeng said.
What Masutha said on Wednesday showed that Pistorius had special treatment. “We are not against Oscar… We just want everyone to be treated fairly.” Mofokeng said.
The minister showed that he was a minister who could work with women, said Mofokeng. “We aren’t against the rule of law. We are wishing that he gets 10 to 15 years with no parole.”
Mofokeng said Reeva Steenkamp’s parents, June and Barry, spent the day at the beach when Masutha announced his decision. She said she communicated it to them, and their mood changed. June said it was the “best day for Reeva”. The model and law-graduate would have celebrated her 32nd birthday on Wednesday.
Pretoria News