Calls for convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik to be released on medical grounds were on Monday labelled as ”baseless, absurd, silly, nonsensical and somehow opportunistic” by the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr).
Sapohr president Golden Miles Bhudu’s statement followed reports that former Sapohr KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Derrick Mdluli would be approaching Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour ”to discuss pardoning Shaik from his sentence because of his ill health”.
The Daily News in Durban reported that Mdluli would be meeting with Shaik on Monday. Mdluli could not be reached for comment.
Mdluli made the statements in his capacity as KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of the Justice for Prisoners and Detainees’ Organisation for Human Rights.
Bhudu in his statement said he questioned the organisation’s authenticity.
Bhudu said: ”We were all along aware about his very close relationship with Mr Schabir Shaik, long before his conviction and imprisonment.”
Shaik was admitted to St Augustine’s Renal Transplant Unit on November 24 last year under the alias ”Mr Jones”. Shaik has effectively spent only two days behind bars.
Shaik was reported to have suffered a mild stroke shortly after he was admitted to St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban.
Mo Shaik, Schabir Shaik’s brother, said: ”We are aware that he [Mdluli] had applied to get permission [to visit Schabir Shaik].”
However, he was not prepared on Monday to comment on Mdluli’s statements to the media.
”We want to keep our mouths shut,” he said.
Correctional Service spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said that no organisation can approach the department for a medical parole. He said Shaik or his family would have to approach the department directly and ”not through a third party”.
He also referred to the relevant section of the correctional services legislation, which says that an inmate can only be considered for medical parole if a person is ”in the final phase” of a terminal illness in order that that prisoner may die a ”dignified death”. — Sapa