The pain and trauma of model Reeva Steenkamp's murder and former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius's prison term have been dragged back into the media spotlight, as it emerged that the "Blade Runner" has qualified to apply for parole.
After he was resentenced by the Supreme Court of Appeal for shooting Steenkamp through a locked toilet door, killing her, Pistorius would be eligible for early release in March 2023.
"And that is what Reeva's parents Barry and June Steenkamp have been mentally preparing themselves for all these years," their lawyer Tania Koen told Sowetan's sister publication Sunday Times Daily.
However, Pistorius had already served just over 500 days before the sentencing, which could be added to his time served.
"This means that he qualified to go before the parole board in July," she added.
The Steenkamps lost their only child Reeva on Valentine's Day in 2013. She was dating Pistorius and had stayed overnight at his upmarket Waterkloof home when, in the early hours of the morning, he shot her through a locked toilet door.
He claimed to have acted in the mistaken belief that she was an intruder and he was protecting her. The state alleged he shot her during a violent argument, in which Steenkamp locked herself away with her phone.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned Pistorius's culpable homicide verdict and convicted him for murder and sentenced him to 13 years and five months in Atteridgeville Prison in Pretoria.
Koen said the correctional services department contacted the Steenkamps last month and invited them to participate in a victim-offender dialogue (VOD) before Pistorius's case could go before the parole board for a decision on his early release.
"Barry absolutely wants to speak to Oscar. I am not at liberty to disclose what the contents of that conversation will entail because of attorney-client privilege. But it is his right and something he wants."
Koen relayed the couple's desire for the dialogue to go ahead, and an appointment was made for correctional services officials to come to their home in East London.
But two days before it was to happen, the Steenkamps were told due to budget problems correctional services was unable to send officials to their home, and the appointment was cancelled.
