Should Oscar Pistorius go to prison, he would go to a facility that caters for his disability, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.
“He should go to a unit in the correctional facility that is earmarked to deal with a person with his disability,” acting national commissioner of correctional services Zach Modise said.
Barry Roux, for Pistorius, was cross-examining Modise in the athlete’s sentencing procedures.
Roux said since the conditions in prisons were highlighted as not being equipped for people with disabilities, he had received many calls from department officials.
“Let me disclose to you… I received many calls from wardens telling me that there are no baths [and] shower doors [are] broken…in prisons,” Roux said.
Modise responded: “What you put to me is not true. It is interesting that correctional services officials are calling Mr Roux.”
He said there were no baths in the normal section of prisons but there were baths in the health facilities.
He denied that shower doors were broken.
On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the Valentine’s Day 2013, shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse. The court found him not guilty of murdering Steenkamp.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.
Pistorius was also found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013. He was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.
Source : Sapa /dm/aa
