Ricardo Dunn
The Department of Correctional Services will hold an inquiry into the death in custody of rightwinger Lood van Schalkwyk.
Right-wing groups have accused the Government of National Unity of negligence after the death of van Schalkwyk.
The groups claimed this week that the Correctional Services authorities knew of Van Schalkwyk’s serious gall-bladder infection, but chose to ignore the gravity of his condition. The Conservative Party, the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and the Freedom Front banded together and called for an official inquiry into the medical treatment of Van Schalkwyk while he was in prison.
Van Schalkwyk, who belonged to the Orde Boerevolk, died last week after a gall-bladder operation at HF Verwoerd Hospital in Pretoria. He was serving a 25-year sentence in Pretoria Central Prison for his role in a parcel bomb attack which killed a Durban computer consultant, and the Bloed Street bomb at a Pretoria taxi rank in 1990. Van Schalkwyk was to be buried in Pretoria last week, but his family asked for an independent post-mortem to be conducted.
The family’s private physician, Dr Tinus Maartens, said his findings corresponded with the earlier report made by the state pathologist that Van Schalwyk died of natural causes. But he felt that the medical treatment that Van Schalwyk received while in prison was inadequate. Maartens said Van Schalkwyk had no access to proper medical care, despite his history of medical problems. “This was a gross violation of his rights,” he said.
Van Schalkwyk had three by-pass operations in the past and was known to have a history of serious medical problems including a gall- bladder infection. “The only treatment he was given for his gall-bladder problem was tablets and ointment,” said Maartens. “This is hardly effective for that kind of illness.”
Department of Correctional Services representative Captain Rudi Potgieter, said Van Schalkwyk was given the best medical care that was available at the time.
Ironically, amid speculation over Van Schalkwyk’s death, his widow Heather is still baffled as to why her husband was not given indemnity along with his co-accused, Henry Martin and Adrian Maritz, two years ago.
Martin and Maritz were part of a group of rightwingers who were granted indemnity just before the elections by the then state president, FW de Klerk. The release of the two men and the sidelining of Van Schalkwyk opened up a series of questions about the indemnity process at the time.
Heather van Schalkwyk said all her attempts, which included a letter to President Nelson Mandela and Minister of Justice Dullah Omar, were in vain. She said she even offered to pay for medical expenses if the government allowed her husband to return home.
Omar said he had corresponded with Van Schalkwyk’s lawyers about a month before Van Schalkwyk’s death and explained the reasons why he was not granted indemnity. Omar said Maritz and Martin were granted indemnity under the apartheid regime and that the present government would not have granted indemnity to them considering their offences.
He added that the report on Van Schalkwyk’s application for indemnity put forward in April 1994 by the Curren Committee — an advisory committee on political prisoner releases — was divided on whether to grant Van Schalkwyk indemnity.
Omar said indemnity was granted to an individual if this was considered to be in the interests of peace, and that Van Schalkwyk’s case did not fall into this category.