|
Balfour Defends Shaik Decision |
| Publication |
Cape Times |
| Date | 2009-03-05 |
| Web Link | www.capetimes.co.za |
Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour will review Schabir Shaik's
release on medical parole only if he receives "hard evidence" that the fraudster
is not severely ill.
A top Correctional Services official on Wednesday slammed as "cynical" and
"irrelevant" SABC reports that a January 13
medical test performed on ANC president Jacob Zuma's former financial adviser
did not show that he was in the final stages of a terminal illness.
"We regard these reports as a cynical *1
attempt to force the department to disclose the details of Mr Shaik's private
medical reports and thereby violate his rights, as well as doctor-patient
confidentiality.
"Pressure is increasingly being brought to bear on us in this regard... but we
are not prepared to do that (disclose the exact nature of Shaik's medical
condition)," Chief Deputy Commissioner of Correctional Services Teboho Motseki
told The Star on Wednesday.
While not commenting directly on the existence or correctness of the January 13
test on Shaik, Motseki stressed that the
Correctional Services Act required parole boards to consider the reports of
medical doctors, not institutions *2. This, he said, meant the reported
January 13 test results were irrelevant to the parole board's decision on Shaik.
Shaik, who served two years and four months of his 15-year sentence for fraud
and corruption involving Zuma, was released from prison on Tuesday and returned
to his family in an ambulance.
Balfour's spokesperson, Manelisi Wolela, on Wednesday confirmed that the Shaik
medical parole decision would not be referred to the Parole Review Board.
"The minister has looked at the report, applied his mind and decided that the
matter is correct," Wolela said.
He stressed that only "hard evidence" would persuade Balfour that the parole
board's decision was not correct.
"Many people are making claims, but with seemingly no basis... If they have
evidence to show that the decision was wrong, they must bring it. But
accusations are not a basis for review."
South African Human Rights Commission chairperson Jody Kollapen on Wednesday
asked that, in the light of the public interest around Shaik's parole and
"inconsistency" around the granting of medical parole, the decision to grant
Shaik parole should be reviewed.
While Balfour has seemingly rebuffed the suggestion, Wolela said Kollapen was
welcome to view the parole board's report on Shaik at the Correctional Services
Department's offices. This, he added, would naturally be under strict conditions
of confidentiality.
Speaking to The Star on Wednesday night, Kollapen questioned whether the
department's invitation to him "would really serve any purpose".
"The commission has not specifically taken issue with the granting of medical
parole to Mr Shaik... but we are concerned about the inconsistency in policy
implementation in the granting of medical parole. This is about accountability
to the broader public."
Balfour found time to read Shaik's application
for parole, but more politically sensitive decisions still wait on his desk,
writes Louise Flanagan.
An apartheid hit squad killer who applied for parole in late 2007, Butana Almond
Nofemela, has been trying for months to get the minister to make a decision on
his release.
This week his lawyer, Julian Knight, said Nofemela was still in jail, awaiting
the minister's decision regarding his parole.
Nofemela is eligible to apply for parole after serving 20 years of a life
sentence. He has now been in jail for 21-and-a-half years.
Knight has previously said that Balfour's failure to make a decision was
political interference *3 in the parole
process.
Nofemela is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Brits farmer, Johannes
Hendrik Lourens, during an armed robbery.
While in jail, he avoided the gallows by confessing to involvement in the police
hit squad murder of anti-apartheid activist Griffiths Mxenge, a crime for which
he received amnesty.
Nofemela's parole application was approved by the local prison committee in
November 2007.
In February last year, it was approved by the National Council for Correctional
Services (NCCS) and sent to Balfour for final approval - but nothing happened.
In December, Knight won a Pretoria High Court order that instructed Balfour to
make a decision on the prisoner's parole within 10 court days. One day before
the court's deadline, Balfour sent the parole decision back to the NCCS -
avoiding making a decision.
Instead, Balfour queried some of the documents, including the age of some
documents, and said Nofemela should undergo the department's pre-release
programmes.
The NCCS will discuss Balfour's queries at its meeting later this month.
At the time, Knight said the age of the documents indicated how long the
department had taken to process the application, and that confirmation that
Nofemela had undergone the programmes was included in the file.