The South African legal system works!
As it turns out not so much:
Oscar Pistorius parole bid collapses in South Africa
...But instead of giving a decision afterwards, embarrassed officials admitted their timings had been wrong.
Earlier this week, they had received, but ignored, a letter from South Africa's top appeals court, which explained that Pistorius needed to spend another year and a half in prison before he could be considered for parole.
So they didn't reject his request for parole, they just shouldn't have been considering it in the first place.