|
More Fuel for Shaik Review |
| Publication |
Cape Times |
| Date | 2009-03-09 |
| Reporters | Karyn Maughan, Kamini Padayachee |
| Web Link | www.capetimes.co.za |
As Schabir Shaik entered his sixth day as a free man,
the controversy about the state of his health has
taken a dramatic turn, with pressure
mounting for a formal review.
There have been five major developments - some of them contradictory - around
Shaik's controversial medical parole:
The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) on Sunday said it would seek a
sworn statement from a Durban cardiologist, Professor DP Naidoo, who said he had
discharged Shaik from Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital four months before the
fraudster was granted medical parole on the basis of reports from three other
doctors.
Human Rights Commission chairperson Jody Kollapen was on Monday due to send a
letter to Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour, in which he will
reiterate his call for a review of Shaik's parole - as well as "an examination
of all the surrounding circumstances that led to the decision" and the "apparent
inconsistencies in diagnoses".
The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has turned on Naidoo. The department said it
was surprised that it took Naidoo so long to reveal that Shaik had been
discharged.
The first Shaik family member to speak about his health, Yunus, described Shaik
as a "dead man walking". He added: "I use this phrase because Schabir's heart is
enlarged, his kidneys and brain have been badly affected, and he has lost about
50 percent of his sight. In other words, there has been progressive organ
damage."
A nurse at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital told the Saturday Star that Shaik was
gravely ill. "It's better that he has gone home," she said.
DCS spokesperson Manelisi Wolela on Sunday did not rule out the possibility that
if Naidoo maintains his reported claims under oath, Balfour would ask for a
review of Shaik's medical parole.
Then it would be in the hands of the Parole Review Board as to whether
52-year-old Shaik's parole would be allowed to stand, he said.
Wolela on Sunday revealed that the department was also considering asking the
KwaZulu-Natal Health Department to obtain statements that could help to clarify
apparent contradictions over Shaik's alleged terminal condition.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health spokesman Leon Mbangwa said: "It is amazing
that it has taken him (Naidoo) so long to make these statements. People were
waiting to use these beds in hospital.
"It would be against our professional ethics to keep people who are not sick in
hospital."
Mbangwa said Naidoo could have taken steps to deal with the matter.
"It is not clear what happened. It may be that there was robust debate in the
hospital regarding Shaik being discharged and this doctor was overruled.
"But if he felt that Shaik should have been discharged, he could have spoken to
the district manager or area manager, or come to the department.
"We need to know what this doctor did about the matter and what treatment Shaik
had been receiving in the past four months."
Mbangwa said he had spoken to the hospital's CEO and informed her that the
department had requested written reports from the medical manager and Naidoo.
"In order to look into this matter, we need written reports from these people to
find out what exactly happened."
Health Professions Council of South Africa spokeswoman Bertha Peters-Scheepers
said the council would investigate the doctor's conduct only if they received a
complaint.
"If there is a problem regarding his relationship with his employer, then the
council would not get involved.
"We will only investigate if we receive a written complaint about a specific
practitioner's unethical behaviour, and we also give that practitioner the
chance to respond," she said.
Shaik, the former financial adviser of ANC president Jacob Zuma, was released on
medical parole - which is reserved for prisoners in the last stages of terminal
illness - after serving two years and four months of a 15-year sentence for
fraud and corruption involving Zuma.
The chairman of the Parole Review Board, Judge Siraj Desai, yesterday confirmed
that he had not been asked to review the Shaik parole decision.
Judge Desai will travel overseas on Thursday and will return on March 22,
meaning that a mooted review of the Shaik decision might be dealt with only in a
fortnight's time.
Wolela reiterated that Balfour was not aware that Shaik had been discharged.
Asked whether Balfour still maintained that Shaik was terminally ill in the
light of Naidoo's reported claims, Wolela explained that Balfour had simply
supported the decision by the Durban-Westville parole board, which had in turn
reached its decision "based on medical reports from three doctors".
More
pictures tracing Shaik's journey.