Thoshan Panday and Rajivee Soni. (File photo/MG)
Wealthy and connected prisoners in two KwaZulu-Natal prisons are allegedly allowed to serve part of their time in private hospitals by corrupt correctional services staff and doctors.
Whistleblowers claim corruption accused business person Thoshan Panday, awaiting trial at the Westville Correctional Centre, and convicted murderer Rajivee Soni, who is serving a 23-year sentence at Pietermaritzburg New Prison, have unlawfully spent extended periods in private hospitals.
In both cases the whistleblowers claim the procedures through which prisoners are allowed treatment in outside hospitals are being bypassed — and that the two are paying the department to be guarded by its wardens during these stays.
The whistleblowers point to a corrupt network of prison officials — with the assistance of doctors from outside the correctional centres and family members — that wealthy prisoners tap into so that they spend their time behind bars in the relative comfort of hospital beds.
The allegations — made independently to the Mail & Guardian by people inside and outside the prison system who have no links to each other — are now being investigated by the department of correctional services on the instruction of Minister Pieter Groenewald.
Groenewald’s spokesperson, Euné Oelofsen, said the minister had been made aware of the allegations as a result of the M&G’s inquiry and “has referred it to the department for handling”.
Provincial correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said the department “is aware of the allegations raised on the treatment of a remand detainee, Thoshan Panday, and is looking into it.”
Panday, arrested on charges of tax fraud, has not remained behind bars since he was denied bail in September, but has instead spent almost two weeks in some of the city’s top private hospitals.
Panday is also facing charges, for which he was granted bail, for his alleged involvement in racketeering, fraud and corruption together with former KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni.
The case relates to a R47 million Fifa Soccer World Cup tender scandal in which the South African Police Service awarded contracts to his company to provide accommodation during the event.
Panday, a former business associate of former president Jacob Zuma’s son Edward, was also arrested in a sting operation in 2011 after he tried to bribe then Hawks provincial head General Johan Booysen with R1.4 million in cash to drop the case.
In the tax fraud case the state has alleged that Panday made misrepresentations to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) to either evade tax, assist others to evade tax, or obtain undue tax returns. The potential prejudice to Sars amounts to more than R7.5 million.
According to sources close to Westville prison where Panday is being held awaiting trial on the tax fraud charges, he was able to speedily secure permission from prison authorities to be admitted to two private city hospitals.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cellphone was found in Panday’s cell during a search on the evening of Sunday 13 October, and as a result he would face punishment of “isolation”, which meant he would not be allowed any family visits for 30 days.
The sources said Panday was then swiftly moved from the prison on 14 October to a local hospital where he remained until Saturday 19 October.
The sources alleged that Panday had paid about R176 000 in cash to the department of correctional services to cover the costs of having wardens guard him in three shifts over 24-hour periods while he was in hospital.
This is in apparent contravention of a court order on 4 October that was handed down when the head of Westville Medium A, Bhekisisa Xulu, was summoned to testify regarding Panday’s earlier absence from court.
The magistrate held an inquiry in terms of section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Act to investigate why Panday did not turn up for court on 26 September.
The magistrate asked Xulu on what basis prison rules allow a prisoner to be sent to a private hospital.
Xulu testified that Panday had been sent to hospital because he was suffering from anxiety and depression.
The magistrate ordered that Panday be treated in the prison hospital. He also ruled that a transcript of the court proceedings be delivered to the national commissioner and the provincial commissioner of correctional services.
Panday’s first admission to another private hospital, which was revealed during the inquiry, the sources said, was from 22 to 27 September.
The sources said they were angry that Panday had been able to use his wealth and “connections” in correctional services to secure admission to a private hospital, and added that it was the police’s responsibility to guard awaiting trial prisoners in hospital, and not correctional services.
“We have got another Schabir Shaik,” said another source.
(Shaik was convicted of corruption and fraud related to his relationship with Zuma and business entities in June 2005 but was controversially released on medical parole after serving two years and four months of his 15-year prison sentence.)
“On Sunday the cells were searched and in his cell they found a phone, then on Monday he went to a private hospital,” the source said about Panday.
“When you are sick in prison you visit the prison clinic, see the nurse, she would say if you need to see the prison doctor who only comes once a week on a Thursday. If you want to see your own private doctor you must make an application to the head of the section for your doctor to come,” he said.
This could take a week, after which the doctor must sign the application and send it back to the section head for a decision, which takes at least another week for a response.
“If it’s an emergency you would be transported to the government hospital in the government ambulance. So the rich, even in the prison, are treated differently,” he said.
The source said it was “easy” for prisoners to get cellphones for their personal use in the prison but these are “very hard to come by” in the section where high-profile prisoners like Panday are held.
“But because of his money he managed to get his hands on one. He clearly bribed a high-ranking official to get the phone as it is virtually impossible to get a phone where he is being kept in the high-profile section,” the source said.
Panday was arrested in early September on the tax-related charges and has been in custody ever since after a magistrate refused to grant him bail.
The state argued that Panday had previously disregarded his bail conditions after his passport was handed back to him so he could travel for business to Istanbul in Turkey and apply for visas for a trip to Europe. He instead used a passport he had previously reported as lost to travel to the United States.
He is facing 27 counts of fraud, alternatively contraventions of tax legislation involving his alleged submission of false VAT and annual income tax returns.
Panday made a brief appearance in the Durban high court on Thursday where the matter was postponed for disclosure of documents until 18 November. He was remanded in custody.
Soni, a Pietermaritzburg business person, was jailed for an effective 30 years in 2018 for orchestrating the murder of his friend, Bhavish Sewram, who had become his former wife’s lover, in 2013.
Soni used his wealth and influence over police officers — one of whom turned state witness against him — to orchestrate the murder of Sewram outside his surgery after several attempts to fabricate rape and drug possession charges against him.
The killing and trial sent shockwaves through Pietermaritzburg’s Indian community, where Soni’s influence is still apparent despite him having been in jail for more than five years.
In her 2018 judgment in the Pietermaritzburg high court, Judge Jacqueline Henriques described Soni as “someone who thought money could buy him anything” after hearing evidence of the vendetta he had waged against Sewram using his money and contacts in the criminal justice system.
Soni was granted leave to appeal his 30-year sentence and conviction and was released on bail in 2020 while the matter was heard.
Although Soni managed to have his sentence reduced by six years, he failed to have his conviction overturned and was sent back to prison to continue serving his term of imprisonment.
According to a letter sent to Groenewald by a whistleblower, which the M&G has seen, Soni has spent the bulk of his time in jail in the hospital wing at New Prison on the basis of a diagnosis provided by a prominent Pietermaritzburg cardiologist who is a close friend.
The same cardiologist, whose name is known to the M&G, provided medical reports that were used to arrange visits to outside hospitals, including MediClinic in Pietermaritzburg, during which Soni was able to meet family members.
According to the letter, Soni “has [also] been in the hospital ward part of the prison since his incarceration”, on the basis of the cardiologist’s diagnosis.
Soni has allegedly had access to alcohol in prison, along with at least seven cellphones, the numbers of which have been provided to Groenewald’s office.
The convicted murderer, who is understood to be preparing to make an application for parole, is also being provided with food by his family, which is smuggled into the prison by staff.
Food was allegedly dropped at the Northdale home of a nurse at the prison hospital who would then smuggle it into the prison. Food was also delivered to Soni by a prison warder on a regular basis.
The illicit privileges allegedly enjoyed by Soni do not end there.
Senior officials in New Prison also allegedly assisted in getting a bed and a television set into the correctional centre for Soni and were willing to fast-track any requests he made for luxury items.
In February 2023, after a new head of prison was appointed, Soni was moved to Westville prison for three months.
During this time he was allowed family visits, one of which was allegedly held in a senior warden’s office. Soni’s children were allegedly allowed to enter the medical facility against regulations while family members were permitted to bring him food.
The whistleblower said Soni was then transferred back to New Prison after a prison official was allegedly paid R40 000 during two visits to a family member’s home in Pietermaritzburg.
Soni was then moved back to the prison hospital on the basis of a report by the cardiologist, who had recommended that he be provided with a breathing machine so that he could sleep at night.
The whistleblower said the doctor had prescribed expensive medication for Soni — which he did not need — to build a case for his medical parole on the grounds that the department would not be able to afford the treatment.
During a raid on the Westville prison led by correctional services national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale in August, a large number of cellphones, SIM cards, drugs and money were seized from prisoners.