Shaik in alleged assault at mosque
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik caused a commotion at a Durban mosque on Friday when he allegedly assaulted a distraught father on his way to attend to his gravely ill daughter, says a Sunday Times report, noting this is the second such incident (he is alleged to have assaulted a journalist) in three weeks.
Shaik declined to comment on Friday's incident, but Mahomed Ismail (42) told the Sunday Times he felt violated '... as if I was raped. It's the first time in my life that someone's hit me. I'm still shaken'. He added: 'I wanted to lay a charge but after talking to my wife I realised we didn't need further trauma in our lives,' said the accountant. Ismail left the noon prayer session at the Masjid Al Hilal mosque in Overport, Durban, after doctors called him in connection with a serious matter involving his five-year-old daughter. But when Ismail tried leaving the mosque grounds, his way was blocked by an unoccupied car belonging to Shaik. When Shaik arrived about 15 minutes later an argument ensued before Shaik allegedly attacked Ismail, slapping him and then punching him several times before bystanders pulled him away.
Full Sunday Times report
Shaik, who did not deny he had pummelled the man with his fists, downplayed the incident, according to a report in The Mercury. He said the man had no facial injuries to show for the alleged assault and that he had made out as if Shaik was 'a raving lunatic who had come out of prayers'. Shaik described the man as being 'beside himself'.
Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)
The DA, however, has called for an investigation. Business Day quotes spokesperson James Selfe as saying it was clear that Shaik had 'egregiously breached his parole conditions on at least three occasions now'. Selfe and parole expert Lukas Muntingh, of the University of the Western Cape's Community Law Centre, said parole authorities could investigate the allegation even where a charge had not been laid. Though it was not a condition of Shaik's parole that he refrain from assault, there were 'general rules for all parolees ... the most important of which is that he not be guilty of any crime', Selfe said. But Muntingh said that, in cases where there was no violation of specific parole conditions, and where the breach amounted to a criminal offence, for a parole violation to have taken place, the parolee needed to have been convicted by a court . 'It's a general principle that people are innocent until proven guilty.'
Full Business Day report