Support for Shaik's return to prison

2011-03-15 12:22

Johannesburg - The Federated Unions of SA (Fedusa) supports Schabir Shaik's return to prison for questioning over reports that he allegedly assaulted two people while on parole, its general secretary said on Tuesday.

"Fedusa seriously questions why the Department of Correctional Services has waited till this late stage in the game to reel in a convicted criminal who is seemingly able to live outside the parameters of his prescribed parole conditions," said Dennis George.

Shaik, once a financial adviser for President Jacob Zuma, served just over two years of his 15 year sentence for fraud and corruption - most of the time in a private hospital - before being released on medical parole with a terminal illness in 2009.

His public outings, mostly sanctioned by the department, have been marked by complaints that he is being treated differently to other prisoners and parolees because of his relationship with Zuma. The two, and French arms company Thint had been implicated in the facilitation and receipt of a bribe during the government's procurement of defence systems.

No comment

Zuma and Thint never stood trial as the charges were dropped shortly before the 2008 election which escalated Zuma to the presidency.

The Sunday Times reported that Shaik had allegedly assaulted a reporter on a golf course and had allegedly assaulted a man in a parking rage incident near a mosque.

Charges were filed at the police over the alleged golf course assault but correctional services decided to book Shaik into prison for a short period to establish whether he had violated his parole conditions, based on the news reports.

The assistant to his attorney Reeves Parsee said he would not be commenting on the matter, after Eyewitness News reported him as saying that Shaik was taken in without supporting documentation being in order.

A correctional services spokesperson was not immediately available to comment.

- SAPA