Pretoria - With decades of experience as a probation officer and social worker, Annette Vergeer claims to know very little about the prison system.
She has been been called as an expert witness in the sentencing of Oscar Pistorius.
The athlete was convicted of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, and his sentencing proceedings began at the beginning of this week, with the defence calling four witnesses, including Vergeer, to convince Judge Thokozile Masipa to give him a light sentence.
On Tuesday, Vergeer recommended that Pistorius be kept under correctional supervision with house arrest as a condition because of the horrible conditions in local prisons, claiming they were rife with violence, sodomy and drugs. She also believed that as a double-amputee, Pistorius would be vulnerable to other inmates and that his rehabilitation would be stymied if he was placed in prison.
On Wednesday morning, prosecutor Gerrie Nel continued attacking Vergeer's credibility.
On Tuesday he claimed she had made similar lenient sentence recommendations on other high profile matters.
On Wednesday, Nel asked if Vergeer could have used her status as a worker at the Department of Social Development to retrieve information on the state of prisons.
She admitted that she could have.
On Tuesday, Vergeer insisted that the devastating conditions in local prisons meant rehabilitation was incredibly difficult for prisoners, especially those with disabilities.
Nel continued on Wednesday by saying that single cells were available for certain prisoners as stated by the local Correctional Services Act, and such applications were not uncommon.
He said it was bothersome that she had come to court to complain of the awful condition of prisons in South Africa without knowing what they are really like. Nel also told the court that her claims there were no baths in any prison were untrue, after determining she had only visited the prisoners' section of two prisons over the past ten years.
He noted that there was policy and legislation on treatment of disabled prisoners, which Vergeer said she was unaware of.
She mentioned she had interviewed someone within the correctional services administration to ask about conditions but could not tell the court who it was.
She also was unable to tell the court what processes a prisoner could follow if they had a complaint from within the prison.
Nel said there were numerous ways for inmates to detail their concerns, from taking the Department of Correctional Services to court to internal complaint hearings. Independent workers would often go specifically inside prisons to speak with prisoners about problems, according to Nel, which Vergeer was unaware of.
Nel accused her of using a template which she would tweak in each of her recommendation documentss at various trials, but Vergeer insisted that while there was a standard layout, she had studied how to compile such forensic reports.
Nel on Tuesday mentioned how she had given a similar recommendation of house arrest for Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye, who killed four teenagers with his co-accused Themba Tshabalala in a drug-fuelled street race.
On Wednesday morning, Nel brought up her similar recommendation for the “Sunday Rapist”, Jaco Steyn prior to his rape spree. She told the court that she provided the recommendations before he became the notorious rapist. It's understood that Steyn committed his crimes while continuing his community service, and Vergeer said that she based her recommendation on the likelihood that he would not re-offend.
Nel then told the court how there were an average of 128 disabled prisoners dealt with yearly over the past 10 years, meaning the department had experience in catering for them.
However, Vergeer said it wasn't just physical issues that Pistorius suffered from, and that his mental state needed treatment as well. She said that she had heard there were not enough psychologists to treat prison patients.
Nel responded by saying that while conditions weren't perfect, in prison, Pistorius would have access to free mental health care, a boon for someone who had previously claimed he was no longer earning an income because of Steenkamp's death.
He then brought up Vergeer's suggestion that if Pistorius is sentenced to community service that he work with disabled children. Nel argued that if Pistorius truly enjoyed working with children, as he had throughout his career, such service would not be punishment enough.
Defence advocate Barry Roux, before concluding the defence's mitigation arguments, referred to a statement issued by the lawyers of the Steenkamp family on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that Pistorius had been paying monthly stipends to the family because they were suffering from financial difficulties.
In the statement, lawyer Dup de Bruyn wrote that the family were remaining “neutral” in terms of the sentencing, and that now that their financial situation had improved, all of Pistorius' money would be paid back, and no civil claims against Pistorius would be undertaken.
Roux read the statement into the record and said Pistorius had offered the proceeds of the sale of his car to the Steenkamps but they had refused. It had been held in a trust account while waiting for their response.
Nel claimed that he wanted to call three or four witnesses in his arguments in aggravation of sentence, but needed time to consult with them before he could begin.
The Star