Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2006-11-27 Reporter: Sapa

Mr Jones, aka Schabir Shaik, in Hospital for Depression

 

Publication 

Cape Argus

Date

2006-11-27

Reporter

Sapa

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za

 

Convicted Durban business- man Schabir Shaik has been admitted to a Durban hospital, correctional services officials said today.

Staff and visitors at St Augustine's Hospital yesterday revealed that convicted fraudster Shaik was being treated at the hospital.

Shaik, admitted under the alias Mr Jones, had been taken to hospital on Friday and is being treated for depression and stress.

The Department of Correctional Services refused to divulge details of his condition but confirmed he was in hospital.

"We can acknowledge that he has been taken to hospital," said deputy commissioner of communications Manelisi Wolela.

A St Augustine's staffer, who requested anonymity, said Shaik, who had arrived with a blue eye *1, has been placed in the hospital's renal transplant unit .

Before his admission to St Augustine's, Shaik had been kept in the hospital section of Empangeni's Qalakabusha Prison after starting his 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption.

In mid-November he was visited in the hospital wing by Judge Nathan Erasmus, the inspecting judge of prisons. Judge Erasmus said at the time that Shaik had been moved from Westville Prison to Qalakabusha because he had "serious" medical conditions.

DA spokesman Rafeek Shah said it was "strange *1" that Shaik should now be suffering from depression.

"During the entire process of his trial not once did anyone indicate he was unable to stand trial, or could not meet certain court dates, for example, on the basis of his depression."

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Argus.


*1       Strange indeed.

But I'd also be depressed if someone had given me a blue eye and I still had fifteen years of starting anew ahead of me.