Cape Town — Tony Yengeni suffers from hayfever and that’s why the former ANC chief whip is accommodated in a hospital cell.

Former businessman Schabir Shaik is also in a hospital cell because he is ill, but if his condition improves he will be moved to another cell.

Correctional Services (DCS) spokesman Manelisi Wolela, told a radio audience yesterday morning that Yengeni has “respiratory problems”, but Die Burger has heard that this means “he has hayfever”.

Wolela did not want to disclose what Shaik’s illness is, but his brother Mo said recently Schabir suffers from high blood pressure.

Wolela said neither Yengeni nor Shaik is receiving preferential treatment in prison.

Not so, says former convict Gayton McKenzie: the DCS has always placed wealthy prisoners in hospital cells because there’s less chance of them being robbed or raped.

In the National Assembly, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour came under fire yesterday, with opposition parties claiming that Yengeni is being given special treatment.

Responding to a statement by ID leader Patricia de Lille, Balfour said: “This country has 243 prisons, and a prison is a prison, and nothing else”.

“We try our best to rehabilitate everybody who is admitted to a correctional facility. We try to rectify offending behaviour. We will do the same with him, and he will be treated no differently from anyone else in our centres,” he said.

Balfour said in response to a statement by James Selfe of the DA, that he regards allegations that “offender Yengeni” broke his weekend parole conditions, in a serious light.

That is why he called for an urgent inquiry into the allegations.

“There is one law for offenders in this country. The members on my side and I do not treat offenders based on who you are or what you belong to. There is one rule and one law for offenders.

“If it is determined that Yengeni broke the code of conduct for weekend parole, then the requisite steps that are built into the system of corrections will be activated and these questions will be properly dealt with,” he said.

Selfe told a meeting of the portfolio committee on correctional services earlier that the Correctional Services Act determined that such an offence (Yengeni allegedly arriving back at jail late) is regarded as absconding, and is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment and/or a fine.

Dennis Bloem of the ANC, who chairs the portfolio committee, said the committee will request a copy of the report on Yengeni’s alleged breaking of parole conditions.

With acknowledgement to Carien du Plessis and The Witness.