Schabir Shaik loses bid for greater parole freedom
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s onetime financial adviser Schabir Shaik has lost his bid to have his “soul-destroying” parole conditions relaxed.
The convicted fraudster learnt this week that the parole board had rejected his application, lodged in November last year, to convert his medical parole to normal parole.
Under the terms of his current parole, he is not able to attend extramural events at his child’s school or go on religious pilgrimages with his family, among other things.
Shaik said the conditions had impacted negatively on his family. “It’s soul-destroying.”
But he said he had not given up hope. “This is not the end of the road . . . The courts are there as well.”
His application in November caught the departments of justice and correctional services by surprise, because there is no provision in law for such a step. It also raised new questions about the state of Shaik’s health.
Correctional services spokesman Logan Maistry confirmed that Shaik’s bid had been unsuccessful, and that the decision had been conveyed to him. “There is no legal basis to amend medical parole to normal parole.”
Shaik, who served 28 months of his 15-year jail sentence for fraud and corruption, was granted parole on medical grounds in 2009 after his doctors told the medical parole advisory board that he was terminally ill.
They said he was clinically depressed, losing his eyesight, had suffered a stroke, and would die from “severe” high blood pressure.
But since his release from prison, he has been spotted shopping, dining out and playing golf.
The parole board originally allowed him six hours of free time a day, but cut this to four after he was seen shopping outside his allotted free time. He is also allowed to attend mosque on Fridays.
University of Cape Town constitutional law expert Professor Pierre de Vos said the law did not allow medical parole to be “converted”. “It is assumed that if you are granted medical parole, you are terminally ill and will die. But, miraculously, Mr Shaik has not died.”