The correctional services department has said that their centres can cater for disabled inmates as they lashed out at claims made during Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius court proceedings that prisons in South Africa were unable to accommodate disabled prisoners.
Departmental spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said that their centres can cater for disabled inmates as they have some currently serving sentences.
Earlier, a social worker and probation officer testified during Pistorius' sentencing proceedings in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that she did not believe the Paralympian was safe in prison, Sport24 reported.
Annette Verger, under cross-examination from prosecutor Gerrie Nel, said that they cannot eliminate Pistorius' vulnerability and they cannot secure his safety. She also suggested that the kind of cement flooring, shower and toilet facilities found in prisons were not suitable for someone with the Paralympian's disability.
Vergeer also raised the possibility that Pistorius could be vulnerable to violence, including rape, behind bars.
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Pistorius had both legs amputated below the knee as a baby and wears prosthetics.
Mhaga said that while the department respected the sub-judice rule, it deemed it appropriate to respond to the allegations raised in court. He said that the reports in court seek to create an impression that their centres are fraught with, among other things, unhygienic conditions, gang violence and rape.
Mhaga added that such allegations about the conditions in their centres are inaccurate. He said that the department was willing to make its expert officials available to the court at any stage required.
Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide on 12 September for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year in his Pretoria home. He has maintained throughout that he thought it was an intruder, the report added.
