Shaik revelations bring hope of review

And for the first time there are signs that a review of the decision may be possible. A report in The Mercury quotes Correctional Services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela as saying he did not rule out the possibility that if Durban cardiologist, Professor DP Naidoo, who said he had discharged Shaik from Nkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital four months before the fraudster was granted medical parole on the basis of reports from three other doctors, maintains his claims - reported in the Sunday Times (see below) - under oath, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour would ask for a review of Shaik's medical parole. Then it would be in the hands of the Parole Review Board as to whether 52-year-old Shaik's parole would be allowed to stand, he said. Wolele revealed that the department was also considering asking the KZN Health Department to obtain statements to clarify contradictions over Shaik's alleged terminal condition. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

Political parties are demanding the decision be investigated. The DA said it would write to the Health Professions Council, asking it to probe the 'serious anomalies' it saw in the decision. And Bantu Holomisa, leader of the UDM, in an open letter to President Kgalema Motlanthe, asked him to launch an investigation, saying Balfour's 'bellicose attitude' had done nothing to inspire confidence. According to a report on the News24 site, Holomisa has proposed a three-person commission to probe the matter. It should consist of a judge and two respected medical practitioners who specialised in Shaik's 'alleged condition' to interview everyone who had been involved in his treatment, he told the President. COPE meanwhile says it plans to write to the National Director of Public Prosecutions asking it to probe the 'sudden release' of Jacob Zuma's former financial adviser. Full report on the News24 site

The severity the illness that qualified him for medical parole is a sham, suggests a Sunday Times report. It says the head of cardiology at Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital discharged Schabir Shaik four months ago because he was considered well enough to leave. But he did not return to prison. Instead, the hospital board and Correctional Services allegedly intervened and the convicted fraudster remained in the ward until his controversial and unexpected medical parole last week. The head of the hospital's cardiology unit, Professor DP Naidoo, is quoted as saying Shaik had officially been discharged from the hospital in November last year. Shaik's first parole application was heard at the same time, and was adjourned to this month. Naidoo had nothing further to do with Shaik's treatment and was taken by surprise at his sudden parole. The report notes that Naidoo's deputy, Dr Sajidah Khan, who lives a stone's throw from Shaik's plush Morningside home, was central to Shaik's medical parole application; and another member of the unit who treated Shaik, Dr Les Ponnusamy, is a dedicated ANC activist whose medical studies in India in the '80s were sponsored by the party. Full Sunday Times report

A different picture is drawn in the Sunday Tribune, which quotes Yunis Shaik as saying his brother is 'a dead man walking'. Yunis told the paper he used this phrase because Schabir's heart is enlarged, his kidneys and brain have been badly affected, and he has lost about 50% of his sight. In other words, there has been progressive organ damage. 'There are no drugs that can reverse that kind of damage. It's irreversible,' he is quoted as saying. 'You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see how very ill Schabir is and to realise how precipitous his situation is, and that we are going to have to provide medical care for Schabir at home.' He added: 'My understanding is that my brother is in what doctors call the 'final stage' of a physical shut-down.' Full Sunday Tribune report

And a nurse who had been attending to him for three months claims Shaik was 'seriously ill' when he was released. A report in The Independent on Saturday says the nurse admitted she had been dubious of Shaik's medical condition when she was first assigned to the high-care ward. She said she thought Shaik was faking his illness and was wasting the taxpayers' money. When he was first admitted, the nurses tried to gain access to his files, as they would any other patient in their charge. However, the report says last year his files were blocked by the hospital management. He was so sick, she said, that tests had to be done hourly and his blood pressure was far too high even though he was taking his treatment scrupulously. 'If he was taken back to prison his condition would not have improved.' Full report in The Independent on Saturday (subscription needed)

Judge Deon van Zyl, Inspecting Judge of Prisons, has been drawn into the issue. He is quoted in Rapport as saying he would like to see Shaik's medical records, adding medical parole was awarded only in exceptional circumstances. Meanwhile, four prisoners are threatening to go on a hunger strike, notes the report. All four are HIV positive and are demanding medical parole. Zackie Achmat, of the Treatment Action Campaign, said they were 'extremely unhappy' with the circumstances under which Shaik was released. 'Poor people die in the most horrific circumstances in prison every day. They don't get preferential treatment like Shaik,' Achmat says. Full report in Rapport

Human Rights Commission chair Jody Kollapen has asked the department to conduct an audit into the prisoners seeking parole on medical grounds. Kollapen told the Cape Times that although he was not yet aware of any formal complaints made to the HRC about the granting of parole to Shaik, he was aware of two families who have notified him of their desperate plea to get medical parole for their loved ones who have since died. Kollapen also said several lawyers acting on behalf of prisoners have written to him on the same issue. 'I think there should be fairness across the board on all chronic diseases, especially HIV, and that when prisoners are in the last stages of the disease, they be released,' the report quotes him as saying. Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)