Minister to consider Oscar petition: reports

According to eNCA, he said he needed to know if the release was lawful. He was concerned that if Pistorius's release was not legally sound, it would create a negative precedent.

Reuters reported that this followed a petition to him from an NGO to review the parole board's decision.If the decision was irregular, he reportedly wanted to know if there was anything that empowered him in law to have the matter revisited.

It was reported Progressive Women's Movement of SA (PWMSA) wrote to Masutha opposing Pistorius's release.

There was concern that Pistorius was being released on correctional supervision during Women's Month.

"We need clarity of why this month," PWMSA Gauteng co-convenor Jacqui Mofokeng said.

"Why didn't they choose another month? They are rubbing salt into the wounds."

She said the letter was sent to Masutha on Thursday on behalf of the 80 organisations, political and non-political, which made up the PWMSA.

The former Paralympic athlete is expected to be released into correctional supervision on Friday.

Correctional services spokesperson Logan Maistry said on Monday that the Kgosi Mampuru prison’s correctional supervision and parole board had met on June 5, and approved Pistorius’s release into correctional supervision.

Pistorius was being released after having spent 10 months in jail. He was sentenced to five years in jail on October 21 2014 for killing Steenkamp, his girlfriend at the time.He shot her four times through the locked door of the toilet in his Pretoria home on February 14 2013, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

(File photo: Gallo Images)