Schabir Shaik's wife is allowed to visit her husband once a week in hospital while other family members need to go through "red-tape" at Correctional Services to be allowed to visit Shaik, the family said yesterday.

Shaik suffered a mild stroke and was admitted to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital in Durban.

"He has uncontrolled hypertension which gives rise to huge problems associated with blood pressure and it's difficult to keep the blood pressure within normal limits, even with medication," said his brother Yunus. "The problem is, it's very difficult for the family to visit him because we have to go through the Correctional Services, write letters and then get supervised visits once in a while," he said.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Pretoria News.