Cape Town - High profile prisoners "must" get special treatment.

That's according to a correctional services (DCS) official with 40 years service.

He told a TV interviewer on Sunday that special treatment for VIP prisoners like Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik was nothing new, nor extraordinary.

Erns Kriek, DCS director of pre-release affairs said on SABC3's Interface programme that the prisons had a responsibility towards every inmate, but high profile offenders were handled more carefully than others.

This was partly because DCS had to protect its image.

"Just imagine if something happened to a high flyer like Tony Yengeni - we'd never hear the end of it."

Specifically, this meant:

Look after the VIP extra carefully

Make sure that he does not get hurt

Make sure that he gets the treatment he requires Judge Siraj Desai, chairperson of the national parole review board said media attention for high profile prisoners meant that DCS might have to make a complex decision before the person was booked into prison, on how to handle matters.

When Yengeni was booked in, DCS denied that there was such a process.

James Selfe, DA MP, stressed in the programme that Yengeni's treatment could not be compared with that of other prisoners who were serving time for the same type of offence.

With acknowledgements to Carien du Plessis and Die Burger.