Acting national correctional services commissioner Zach Modise’s testimony shows his department has the means of taking care of a person with disabilities, Judge Thokozile Masipa said on Tuesday.
“He answered questions honestly… and was a good witness,” she said in the High Court in Pretoria during the sentencing of paralympian Oscar Pistorius.
“Modise did not paint a picture of a problem-free department but that the department had made strides and was moving with the strides.
“I am satisfied that the correctional services department has the means to deal with an accused with disability needs.”
Masipa said she found the testimony by social worker and probation officer Annette Vergeer to be unhelpful and disturbing.
“I was not impressed by Ms Vergeer as a witness. Her evidence did not inspire any confidence in this court,” she said.
On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide on for the Valentine’s Day 2013, shooting of 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 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 /mar/aa
