Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour has ordered a medical specialist to ascertain whether convicted businessman Schabir Shaik’s stay at a Durban hospital is absolutely necessary, the Daily News reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper quotes Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni as saying that the medical examination will be conducted to obtain a ”second opinion” on the state of Shaik’s health.
The media speculated last month that Shaik had spent more than R500 000 on his stay at Durban’s St Augustine’s Hospital. A private room at the hospital costs R2 300 a day.
Shaik was convicted in July 2005 on two counts of corruption and one count of fraud by Justice Hilary Squires in the Durban High Court. The Supreme Court of Appeal last year upheld Squires’s judgement and Shaik reported to Durban’s Westville Prison on November 9.
He was transferred to Empangeni’s Qalakabusha Prison on the same day, and on November 24 he was admitted to St Augustine’s Hospital’s renal transplant unit in Durban. Speculation has been rife that Shaik has received preferential treatment.
Shaik apparently suffers from unstable blood pressure and hypertension. His family said he suffered a mild stroke shortly after he was admitted to St Augustine’s.
At the end of January, Judge Nathan Erasmus, the head of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons, said that he had not received any official complaints of preferential treatment.
At the time, he denied speculation that he had launched a fresh probe into Shaik’s hospital stay. However, he said he was awaiting medical reports from Shaik’s doctors.
The outcome of those reports is not known and it was not immediately clear what had prompted Balfour to order the department to send its own medical specialist to examine Shaik.
Shaik’s brother Yunis Shaik said earlier in January that Schabir would not be seeking a medical pardon. ”The only action contemplated by Schabir Shaik is a challenge before the Constitutional Court,” he said.
Kebeni could not immediately be reached for comment. — Sapa