Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2009-03-10 Reporter: Angela Quintal

Did Prison Blues Affect Shaik?

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2009-03-10
Reporters Angela Quintal
Web Link www.capetimes.co.za



Psychological factors may have contributed to Schabir Shaik's physical ailments, according to two cardiologists who recommended medical parole last year.

Their view is contained in a two-page report to the head of the Medium B prison at Durban Westville, which details Shaik's medical condition from when he was first diagnosed with systemic hypertension in 2001, aged 44 *1.

It also refers to Shaik's condition when he was first admitted to St Augustine's Hospital, 16 days after he was jailed in 2006.

Shaik's medical condition was never raised in mitigation of sentence before Judge Hilary Squires, who found him guilty of corruption and fraud in June 2005. Nor did the family initially consider medical parole for him.

The September 2008 report was co-authored by heart specialists Professor DP Naidoo and Dr Sajidah Khan, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine.

The report contains a list of 10 hypertensive and cardiac medicines administered to Shaik, in addition to his psychiatric medication.

The report notes that Shaik frequently used analgesics to obtain "some relief" from the severe headaches he suffered, which were related to poor blood pressure control.

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With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and Cape Times.


*1       Proves the point.

Shaik was diagnosed with systemic hypertension in 2001 *2, aged 44.

It is now 2009 and he is 52.

So he survived 8 years.

That is against any notion of the final stages of a terminal illness.

The final stages of a terminal illness is when one has weeks to live.

In any case Shaik's systemic hypertension is caused by his lifestyle of poor eating habits, poor sleeping habits, poor fitness habits, drinking lots of strong alcohol, coca-cola, strong coffee, etc., all combined with the psychological stress of a criminal mind and criminal business.


*2      It is instructive to note the onset of systemic hypertension in 2001, the year of the Arms Deal investigation wherein Shaik was arrested in mid-November 2001. This after public statement of bribery and corruption having been made in September 1999.