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Pretoria - Convicted Paralympian Oscar Pistorius's family will lodge a complaint with the Press Ombudsman over an article about the apparent demands Pistorius has made while in prison.
"We feel compelled to respond to The Saturday Star article, headlined 'Oscar’s Diva Demands' published on 22 August, 2015," the family said in a statement earlier this week.
"The article in question is factually incorrect, deeply misleading and a gross misrepresentation of the facts. We will be lodging a complaint with the Press Ombudsman within the prescribed 21 days from the date of publication."
According to the article, the correctional services department built Pistorius a bath in his cell at Kgosi Mampuru Prison because he complained about wanting to take a bath.
Pistorius also reportedly complained about his bed, which the department later replaced.
Murasiet Mentoor, the regional manager of the Judicial Inspectorate, confirmed to the newspaper the comments he had made to an American broadcaster, that he had been asked to review a number of Pistorius’s complaints about his living conditions.
Mentoor said officials had also conceded to Pistorius’s demands that new equipment be installed in the prison gym.
'Paranoid'
It also emerged how Pistorius was allowed to prepare his own food, due to the athlete being paranoid about being poisoned.
Mentoor said Pistorius’s fame and disability made the hospital wing the only viable choice for containing him – as he would have become a target for violence in the overcrowded cells.
“If you’re a high-profile inmate, you’re at risk because other inmates and gangsters within the Correctional Services will target you,” he said, according to the report.
On October 21 last year, the High Court in Pretoria sentenced Pistorius to five years in jail for culpable homicide after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
He shot her through the locked door of his toilet on February 14, 2013. His defence was that he thought she was an intruder.
Pistorius was supposed to have been released on correctional supervision last Friday, but a day before the release, justice minister Michael Masutha announced it would be put on hold because "the correct processes were not followed".
eNCA reported on Thursday his parole review was set down for September 18.
