Publication: The Citizen Issued: Date: 2007-01-09 Reporter: Paul Kirk

Shaik in New Move to Avoid Prison

 

Publication 

The Citizen

Date

2007-01-09

Reporter

 Paul Kirk

 

Fraud and corruption convict Schabir Shaik has launched a desperate bid to get out of serving his fifteen-year prison sentence – he wants a sick note from his doctor to open the prison gates.

Yesterday Shaik’s aides met with Derrick Mdluli – a former senior member of the South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights - to set in motion a scheme that may allow Shaik to get out of serving his time.

Mdluli recently left the SA Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights to start a rival organization called the “Justice for Prisoners and Detainees Organisation for Human Rights.”

Sapohr is a well-known body that has frequently campaigned for prisoners rights. Details of the new organisation started by Mdluli appear vague and it is not certain who, other than Mdluli, makes up this body.

The Citizen has established that SAPOHR’s telephone lines have been disconnected in Durban due to their bills not being paid.

Yesterday Golden Miles Budhu, the national Chairman of SAPOH hinted that Mdluli had “had his palms greased” while he was the KZN chairman of SAPOHR.

However he would not comment further on his former colleague.

Mdluli confirmed that he would be seeking a meeting with the Ministry of Correctional Services to request Shaik receive a full pardon one the grounds of his “ill health”.

Schabir’s brother Mo described Shaik’s medical condition as: “chronically dangerous *1”.

Since presenting himself at prison to begin his sentence Schabir Shaik has spent the last 45 days in various wards of Durban’s luxurious St Augustine’s Hospital – high on the Berea in an area only millionaires can afford to buy homes.

Shaik was first admitted for a minor procedure relating to his high blood pressure – which was described as “exploratory surgery.”

Early this year he underwent what his family described as “maxillo-facial surgery” – the Citizen has been told by a St Augustine’s staff member that in simple terms Shaik only had inflamed gums.

Mdluli said that if his bid for a pardon fails he would ask that Shaik’s sentence be drastically reduced. In sentencing Shaik for his corruption conviction Judge Hillary Squires handed down the most lenient sentence he could in terms of legislation relating to minimum sentences for crimes.

Corruption to the value of more than R100 000 carries a fifteen-year minimum sentence – which Squires handed down. Minimum sentences are normally handed down on prisoners who plead guilty at the earliest opportunity and show remorse *2. Shaik however denied guilt and during court proceedings threatened Advocate Anton Steynberg that he would: “get him.”

Scorpions spokesman Makhosini Nkosi said that the Scorpions had no comment on the new moves.

During his court case Shaik missed one day of court due to a medical condition. However he did not bring any medical condition to the attention of the judge before sentencing.

With acknowledgements to Paul Kirk and The Citizen.


*1      It is far more likely that Shaik’s mental condition is chronically dangerous.


*2      More significantly than not showing remorse, Shaik claims his acts were neither corrupt nor fraudulent, but were either the fault of others, i.e. Ahmed Paruk, or in the name of reciprocal altruism.

Personally, in the context of human relationships, I doubt that there is such a thing as reciprocal altruism *3 - it seems to be a contradiction in terms - but :
In evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism is a form of altruism in which one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation . This is similar to the tit for tat strategy in game theory. It would only be expected to evolve in the presence of a mechanism to identify and punish "cheaters".
A potential example of reciprocal altruism is blood-sharing *4 in the vampire bat, in which bats feed regurgitated blood to those who have not collected much blood themselves knowing that they themselves may someday benefit from this same donation; cheaters are remembered by the colony and ousted from this collaboration.

from Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_altruism


*3       Altruism is unselfish concern for the welfare of others (plural).

Altruism can be distinguished from a feeling of loyalty and duty. Altruism focuses on a motivation to help others or a want to do good without reward, while duty focuses on a moral obligation towards a specific individual (for example, a God, a king, a deputy president with aspirations of being president), a specific organization (for example, a government, The ANC), or an abstract concept (for example, country, bumiputera, etc.).

Altruism is giving without regard to reward or the benefits of recognition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism

*4      Maybe that's why when at university and long before the days of HIV, etc., I donated enough pints of my own precious blood knowing that I myself might someday benefit from this same donation.


But this, me thinks, is not quite what those mutual symbiotics, Shaik and Zuma, are getting at.