Shaik a 'political ping pong'
2007-05-22 20:22
Durban - Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour was accused on Tuesday of playing political "ping pong" with convicted Durban fraudster Schabir Shaik.
Shaik's brother, Mo Shaik said: "The rights and health of an offender cannot be used as political ping pong by political parties in Parliament. It is simply unacceptable that every time the minister has to answer questions, before he stands up in Parliament Schabir Shaik is moved."
Mo Shaik's comments followed Balfour telling Parliament's correctional services portfolio committee earlier on Tuesday that "I have a report here... that's coming from our doctors in KwaZulu-Natal. I read the report last night [and] I made up my mind... by 06:00 this morning, Schabir Shaik is back in prison."
Shaik said he had received a call from a correctional services official at 04:00 on Tuesday informing him of his brother's move back to Westville prison "at the minister's instructions".
Schabir Shaik was referred to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban over a month ago, after he spent two months at a prison infirmary, and 83 days at St Augustine's hospital.
While at Qalakabusha prison at Empangeni, Shaik was treated for hypertension and other blood-pressure related conditions.
Balfour said it would be "very unethical" to make the medical report public.
"He's back in prison. I've made sure that he goes, based on this report, not based on anything else...
"I've just got the offender back to where he belongs. That's my job. My job is not to be talking about who's healthy and who's not healthy. My job is to make sure that the offender goes back to where he belongs.
"So by 06:00 he was back there, and I'm not going to give any interviews on that... I've done what needs to be done."
'Balfour read the wrong report'
Mo Shaik said he had seen the report that doctors at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital had compiled on his brother's condition.
"He's (Balfour) reading the wrong report," he said.
"The report is of a serious nature. In fact the report I've seen says severe, uncontrolled hypertension and target organ damage. Damage to the heart. Peripheral vascular disease. They way I understand it this is serious and the doctors planned to continue their investigations," he said, adding the doctors had planned to do a renalgram (a test of the functioning of kidneys) on Shaik.
He said the report had been compiled by the group of doctors who had been treating Shaik at Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital, and that the group included government-assigned doctors.
Mo Shaik said he was "very upset" and described the timing of his brother's move back to Westville prison as "despicable".
"We should get an explanation why this was done. Not since we were arrested (during the apartheid era) has something like this happened to us. It's just ping pong.
"We were led to believe that this was a caring society, even for the incarcerated. I simply do not know."
- SAPA