GREENER PASTURES
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has been transferred to a ‘nice’, smaller prison with better services
Oscar Pistorius (RIGHT) will serve the remainder of his jail time at Atteridgeville Correctional Centre (FAR RIGHT) in western Pretoria.
AT MOST prisons the high walls and strict security measures are the first things you notice, but when you’re standing outside Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria what catches your eye is the greenery – hectares of vegetable gardens under irrigation.
At the rear of the prison complex is a low building with a green corrugated iron roof, watchtowers overlooking it and a curved wire fence surrounding it. This is Oscar Pistorius’ new home. Singabakho Nxumalo, spokesperson for the department of correctional services, says Oscar (30) asked to be transferred to this prison to serve out the rest of his six-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp (29).
But why did the Paralympic star want to leave Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre, which is also in Pretoria? “That’s between Pistorius and prison officials,” Nxumalo says.
The rest of his sentence or the time until he’s released on parole will now be spent here, near the suburb of Laudium.
Beside the R55 road opposite the prison grounds children in green and blue uniforms wait for their lifts home. You can see them playing and hear them laughing and talking.
“Oscar is doing well; he’s now in the best place he’s been in,” a source close to the Pistorius family tells us.
LAST year Oscar walked free from Kgosi Mampuru II prison after serving just less than a year of a five-year sentence for culpable homicide relating to Reeva’s death on Valentine’s Day in 2013. By HILDA VAN DYK Picture: MARTIN DE KOCK But this year he returned to the prison after prosecutors successfully appealed the earlier verdict, resulting in Oscar being found guilty of murder and receiving a six-year sentence.
He was held in the section for those awaiting trial and convicted prisoners who require full-time healthcare. There he had his own cell with a bath that had been installed specially for him.
Although the prison accommodated his disability needs, it had no rehabilitation and development programmes, Nxumalo says.
He adds that Atteridgeville prison, which falls within Kgosi Mampuru II’s management area, was upgraded specifically to cater for disabled prisoners. Included in the upgrades were new baths designed for people with disabilities.
The prison was originally part of a military base founded in 1905 called Robert Heights, which was renamed Voortrekkerhoogte in 1939 then Thaba Tshwane in 1998. The base is now located behind the prison, which also got its name in 1998.
The building where the inmates are housed is a flat structure, unlike Kgosi Mampuru II, which has multiple storeys.
Tanja Smith*, who’s been to Atteridgeville to minister to prisoners, says it’s known as the zinc prison because it looks as if it’s made from corrugated iron containers.
The green palisade fence around the entire prison complex has no razor or electric wire.
Nxumalo says the prison can accommodate 1 050 prisoners – far fewer than the 7 000 to 8 000 prisoners housed in the overcrowded Kgosi Mampuru II.
Another source close to the Pistorius family says Atteridgeville is well organised and well managed and that things run well.
Nxumalo says it caters specifically for prisoners with sentences of up to six years and those regarded as minimal risk. There are single and communal cells.
He wouldn’t say whether Oscar was still being held in a single cell because “it’s a security matter”.
A police official who’s visited the facility many times says it’s the one prison in South Africa where there have never been problems such as protests or escapes. “It’s apparently a nice prison because there aren’t any dangerous criminals housed there.
“The only prisoners sentenced at the facility are ones who require minimum