Reeva Steenkamp's mother not seeking retribution against Oscar Pistorius

Slain model Reeva Steenkamp's mother has said she does not want revenge against her killer Oscar Pistorius.

The Paralympic "Blade Runner" was released on house arrest this week just under a year into a five-year jail sentence for the culpable homicide of Steenkamp, who was shot through a locked bathroom door.

On Wednesday, June Steenkamp made her first public comment since the South African athlete was released to serve out his sentence at his uncle Arnold's home in a suburb of Pretoria.

She said: "I've got no feelings of revenge. I don't want to hurt him. He's already a disabled person.

"I didn't want him to be thrown in jail and be suffering, because I don't wish suffering on anyone, and that's not going to bring Reeva back. But in my heart I don't want revenge towards him, I'm past that."

She made the comments at the launch of the Reeva Steenkamp Foundation at a school in the southern city of Port Elizabeth.

During the event, Mrs Steenkamp read a speech that Reeva had been due to deliver on the morning of Valentine's Day 2013, the day she was shot and killed by Pistorius.

"It's been a hard journey and it's going to go on until the day I die," Reeva's mother said when asked how she was coping.

Pistorius family spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess said on Tuesday they were glad to have the athlete home and that he would observe his parole conditions closely.

He faces an appeal on November 3 by prosecutors who hope to see his culpable homicide conviction overturned to murder.