News24 | Oscar Pistorius released on parole after eight years behind bars

Oscar Pistorius

• Oscar Pistorius has been released on parole after eight years in prison.
• He will live with his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, in Waterkloof, Pretoria, for the duration of his parole.
• His parole conditions have not been made public.

Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was released on parole from Pretoria's Atteridgeville Correctional Centre on Friday after eight years behind bars for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

"The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is able to confirm that Oscar Pistorius is a parolee, effectively from 5 January 2024. He was admitted into the system of community corrections and is now at home," DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said on Friday.

Pistorius was released into the care of his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, who lives in the upmarket Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof, for the duration of his parole.

The street on which Arnold Pistorius' house is situated was barricaded by private security guards from Thursday afternoon.

In a statement on Friday, Steenkamp's mother, June Steenkamp, said she and her now deceased husband had always known that parole was part of South Africa's justice system.

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She added that the parole conditions imposed on Pistorius – which the correctional services department has declined to release – had affirmed their "belief in the South African justice system".

Pistorius was initially convicted of culpable homicide by Gauteng High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa for repeatedly shooting Steenkamp through his toilet door on Valentine's Day 2013.

He remains adamant he believed the law graduate and model, who would have turned 40 last year, was an intruder.

ALSO READ | June Steenkamp's wish is 'to live my last years in peace' as she accepts Pistorius' parole release

After two State appeals, Pistorius was eventually sentenced to 13 years and five months behind bars for murdering Steenkamp, under the principle of dolus eventualis, in that he must have foreseen that whoever was behind his toilet door - whether an intruder or not - would die as a result of his actions.

More to follow.