Doctors ask Balfour to come clean on Shaik's parole

A lawyer for the three doctors who treated recently paroled fraud convict Schabir Shaik says he has no documentation showing they recommended medical parole for Shaik, reported South African Broadcasting Corporation news on Monday.

Altus Van Rensburg, the lawyer for the three doctors said: “The purpose of this section of the Correctional Services Act is to ensure that patients get to be sent home to die a dignified death. That is certainly not stipulated in any of their written documentation that I have.”

He said the doctors—Professor Datshana Prakash Naidoo, Dr Sajidah Khan and Dr Les Ponnusamy—called on Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to release the full details of Shaik’s parole information.

The three doctors who treated Shaik are subject to a probe by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) to determine if there was any misconduct that resulted in the controversial granting of Shaik’s medical parole.

Van Rensburg also said no allegations of unprofessional conduct were made against the doctors by the HPCSA.

“In the letter of complaint, which is really a request for an investigation, no allegation of unprofessional conduct whatsoever are made against any of my clients.

“So really that is in our submission the end of the story because the HPCSA can only investigate charges or allegations of unprofessional conduct and there are no such charges.”

Van Rensburg said he would submit his report to the council on Tuesday.

Shaik was given medical parole less than three years into a 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption.

He is reported to have spent much of his sentence in a hospital bed, before the medical parole was granted. His family have said he is “gravely ill”.

However, prison rights bodies have questioned why he was released when so many ill HIV-positive patients remain behind bars.

Balfour said at the time that Shaik qualified for medical parole as his doctors had concluded he was “in the final phase of his terminal condition”.

“The three medical practitioners’ collective submission shows a unanimous conclusion that Mr Shaik is in ‘the final phase of his terminal condition’,” said Balfour in a statement.

He added: “One even went as far as saying that his condition has reached an irreversible condition.” - Sapa