Shaik in prison row on eve of ConCourt application

The former financial adviser of ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma is asking the court for leave to appeal his conviction on two counts of corruption and one of fraud, his 15-year jail term and the seizure of his assets. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, he contends that his constitutional rights to freedom, equality, dignity and a fair trial have been infringed by the trial and appeal courts. But yesterday Shaik had other matters on his mind when Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour announced his return to prison after spending more than a month in the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital. The Minister said Shaik was moved after he received a report from a Correctional Services doctor in KwaZulu-Natal, according to The Star. Shaik previously spent two months at the Westville Prison\'s infirmary and a further 83 days at St Augustine\'s Private Hospital. Prior to that he also spent two weeks of his sentence in the hospital section of Qalakabusha Prison in Empangeni, where he was treated for hypertension and other blood pressure-related issues. Full report in The Star Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Shaik’s family accused Balfour of playing political ‘ping pong’ with the convicted fraudster. His brother Mo Shaik said: ‘The rights and health of an offender cannot be used as political ping pong by political parties in Parliament. It is simply unacceptable that every time the Minister has to answer questions, before he stands up in Parliament Schabir Shaik is moved.’ Mo Shaik said he had seen the report that doctors at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital had compiled on his brother\'s condition. ‘He\'s (Balfour) reading the wrong report,’ he said, according to SABC News. ‘The report is of a serious nature. In fact the report I\'ve seen says severe, uncontrolled hypertension and …organ damage. Damage to the heart. Peripheral vascular disease. The way I understand it this is serious and the doctors planned to continue their investigations,’ he said. He said the doctors had planned to do a renalgram (a test of the functioning of kidneys) on Shaik. He said the report had been compiled by the group of doctors who had been treating Shaik at the hospital, and that the group included government-assigned doctors. Mo Shaik said he was ‘very upset’ and described the timing of his brother\'s move back to Westville prison as ‘despicable’. Full SABC News report

Inspecting Judge of Prisons found Shaik received no special treatment while in hospital, according to a report on the Mail & Guardian Online site. Judge Nathan Erasmus said that prior to any reports about Shaik\'s hospital treatment appearing in the media, he had personally sent an investigator to probe rumours about Shaik\'s treatment. ‘We were obviously concerned about claims that Mr Shaik might be receiving preferential treatment, and felt they should be investigated.’ He said prison and medical records were checked and Shaik\'s own physician, Dr Somalingum Ponnusamy, had been contacted for confirmation about his condition. Erasmus said that while Shaik was being held in a single ward, it was ‘equipped only with the bare essentials’, and he was under constant guard. Shaik received no more visitors than regulations allowed, and his meals were prescribed by his doctor. Full report on Mail & Guardian Online site