Oscar gets new cell — with a bath

OSCAR Pistorius has been moved to a new prison and into an upgraded cell that has its own bath.

Since Tuesday he has been held in the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, where cells were refurbished in May.

Pistorius applied for the move, but it was done in such secrecy that not even his uncle Arnold Pistorius was aware of it.

“Really? I didn’t know that,” said Arnold Pistorius yesterday. “I went to visit him on Sunday and he did not tell me about this.

“I hope the new place is better and has facilities for him to keep busy. He was being locked up for up to 18 hours [in Kgosi Mampuru II] and I don’t think it was nice for him. He needs to keep busy with activities like working in the fields,” he said.

Correctional services confirmed that Pistorius had been moved, but denied that the cell had been spruced up specifically for him.

Spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said the department had upgraded the prison to accommodate disabled prisoners.

He said Pistorius had previously been held in the remand centre which is used for awaiting-trial prisoners or those who had been sentenced and needed hospitalisation or healthcare.

Two correctional services officials said Pistorius was in high spirits and had already made friends.

“He told us that he would like to drive a tractor,” said one official. “He said he was good with ploughing the fields because he used to do that on his family farm in Mpumalanga when he was young.”

Meanwhile, a prison official at the Atteridgeville centre was arrested this week for trying to smuggle dagga into the facility. The man was arrested on the day that Pistorius was moved there.