The KwaZulu-Natal health department says fraud convict Schabir Shaik’s doctor, Professor DP Naidoo, has been misquoted, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
”DP Naidoo had been saying he was discharging Schabir Shaik but to the Department of Correctional Services. Not to say he was fit and well. He wasn’t getting any better [under care].
”He was then discharged because everything that could be done had been done,” said KwaZulu-Natal health department chief operations officer Nhlanhla Nkosi.
Naidoo — the head of cardiology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s school of medicine — said in a report considering Shaik for parole that he was not responding to treatment and that he remains ”at risk for a stroke, heart attack and blindness”.
”We cannot keep him in hospital indefinitely, and since the prison authorities are reluctant to keep him at the prison hospital, where conditions are suboptimal, we recommend he be considered for medical parole.”
Review of ‘inconsistencies’
Meanwhile, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said on Monday that it would be requesting a review of the release of Shaik from Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour.
The SAHRC said it would also ask the minister to conduct an audit of South African prisons, identify all terminally ill prisoners and give them the opportunity to apply for medical parole.
Shaik, former financial adviser to the African National Congress presidential candidate Jacob Zuma, was released from the Durban Westville prison on March 3 after serving 28 months of a 15-year jail term.
SAHRC chairperson Jody Kollapen said ”inconsistencies” had emerged in the manner in which the correctional services act was being applied. The review board, he said, may provide clarity in terms of how it should be applied in practice.
”In Mr Shaik’s case, information in the public domain saying that he was discharged … this warrants a referral for review,” said Kollapen.
The Sunday Times reported that Shaik was deemed well enough to return to prison four months ago.
The report quoted Naidoo as saying Shaik was discharged four months ago but remained in the ward until he was paroled last week.
”Also, the way the Act is applied seems to be inconsistent … people having to go to court to get released on medical parole or some just dying in prison, this needs to be addressed,” Kollapen said.
”A review, we feel will provide some clarity and also lay down guidelines in how medical parole is applied in practice.”
The Shaik case has placed medical parole under the microscope.
On Sunday, City Press reported that a total of 1 056 prisoners died of ill-health in 2008, 117 of which were from Durban Westville prison.
Quoting the Durban Justice for Prisoners and Detainees Trust, the report said many gravely ill prisoners were kept in prison because they did not have recommendations from doctors, resulting in their cases failing to reach the parole board.
It said many families were now approaching the organisation to assist them with getting their imprisoned family members released on medical grounds.