A South African appeals court will rule this week on whether to overturn a manslaughter conviction against Oscar Pistorius and find him guilty of murder for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The registrar's office of the Supreme Court of Appeal said in an email to journalists that the judgment will be announced on Thursday morning.

Pistorius, 29, was convicted of manslaughter for shooting Ms Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.

The double-amputee Olympian was released from jail on October 19 after serving one year of a five-year sentence and is under house arrest.

If convicted of murder, Pistorius faces a 15-year jail sentence.

The appeals court can also order a retrial or rule that Pistorius's manslaughter conviction was correct.

Meanwhile, journalists have been allowed to look at the former cell of the double-amputee Olympian during a tour of a maximum security prison in Pretoria.

The South African prison cell where Oscar Pistorius stayed for a year was furnished with a single mattress on a metal frame, a basin, a small cabinet and a barred window.