Shaik sent back to prison

Balfour said he made the decision, effective immediately, after viewing the reports of two private practitioners and a third medical report by a doctor of the department. Shaik has been in Durban\'s St Augustine\'s Hospital for the past 83 days to receive treatment for high blood pressure, according to a report on the Mail & Guardian Online site. Balfour said Shaik was being sent to Westville prison as it was close to the hospital and to Shaik\'s doctors and family. ‘The step we have taken is in the best interest of both the offender and the department,’ Balfour said. He said Shaik\'s doctors would be granted access to him at any time to monitor his condition. The department\'s own doctor and nurses would also be available to Shaik, Balfour said. ‘I have also instructed the management of Durban Westville (prison) to ensure that appropriate medical treatment is provided to him as we do to all other offenders of a similar state of health and similar conditions.’ Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Meanwhile, the Department of Correctional Services has reacted to recent criticism of its handling of the incarceration of fraud convicts Tony Yengeni and Shaik by taking out a newspaper advert in which it defends itself against claims that it has given certain prisoners preferential treatment. ‘Do not shout from the sidelines, submit evidence of wrongdoing to the Minister, the inspecting judge and the Parole Review Board for corrective action,’ the advert states, according to a report on the Mail & Guardian Online site. ‘Recent allegations of preferential treatment of some offenders are probably due to being uninformed or motivated by other factors,’ the department notes. It claimed in the advertisement that a ‘recent wave of reporting and commentary’ had shown the department\'s challenges over public awareness and understanding of its core mandate and system. Full report Mail & Guardian Online report

The denial of preferential treatment has been dismissed as ‘fatuous’ by the DA. ‘The department... has seen fit to publish fatuous advertisements in the media seeking to explain the way some people are receiving preferential treatment when it comes to correctional supervision and parole,’ DA spokesperson James Selfe said. This was disingenuous, since it was quite clear that, particularly in Yengeni\'s case, the case for preferential treatment was overwhelming. According to a report on the IoL site, Selfe told Parliament yesterday that when it came to the application of the rule of law, there ‘are ANC citizens and ordinary South Africans. And the perception is that ANC citizens have a much better time in prison than ordinary inmates’. Full report on the IoL site

On the issue of parole, Selfe said Yengeni had reported only once to the Educare Centre where he was to perform his community service. Yengeni was convicted in 2003 of defrauding Parliament by failing to disclose a 47% discount on a luxury 4X4 Mercedes-Benz, notes a report on the IoL site. According to Selfe – the DA member on the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee for Correctional Services – Yengeni is required to do 16 hours of work at the centre a month. Yengeni was released from Malmesbury Prison on January 15 after serving 20 weeks of a four-year sentence. Full report on IoL site