Discharged Selebi gets single cell in jail hospital
FORMER police commissioner Jack Selebi was discharged from the Steve Biko Academic Hospital this week, after an almost three-month stay, and taken straight back to a cell at Pretoria Prison.
The disgraced 61-year-old former police chief was moved from the hospital’s nephrology unit to a specially prepared cell within the prison’s hospital unit but not before doctors and hospital managers had checked it.
“They came in to see it and make sure it was properly designed and to see that it was sanitised enough to prevent any infections,” said Deputy Commissioner of Correctional Services Zachary Modise.
Modise said a resident doctor would constantly monitor Selebi. “Two nurses have been trained by the hospital to take care of him and Selebi himself has also been trained to administer his own treatment.”
Selebi suffers from diabetes and kidney disease and has been in and out of hospital since he collapsed at his Waterkloof home in early December, apparently from shock, after hearing that the Supreme Court had turned down his appeal against a 15-year jail sentence for corruption.
He was admitted to the Jacaranda Hospital, where he was treated until he handed himself over to Correctional Services authorities.
Hospital officials said he would be going back to the hospital for assessments and check-ups from time to time.
“He has been very ill during his time here,” an official said, adding that doctors had found he was well enough to go back to prison.
He is on renal dialysis and is being treated for diabetes.
Modise added: “He is being cared for in a partnership between Correctional Services and the hospital – they will be providing for some aspects of his treatment and we will do the rest.”
Selebi would receive 24-hour care in his single cell in the hospital unit, he said.