Zuma's ex-adviser freed after 28 months spent mainly in hospital

Convicted businessman Schabir Shaik is a free man. He has been granted medical parole - after months of lobbying by his family and doctors.

Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2005 after he was convicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud.

This was based on evidence of a corrupt relationship between himself and then South African and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

At the time of going to press last night, there was a lot of activity at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban, where Shaik had spent a good deal of his incarceration.

There were indications that he was to join his family as a free man yesterday evening, to avoid the expected media scrum once news of his medical parole broke today.

In the two years and four months he has been in jail, Shaik has spent most of the time in either private or prison hospitals due to high blood pressure, depression and chest pains, which his family and doctors insist are life threatening.

The decision to grant Shaik medical parole was made yesterday after he again appeared before the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board of the Durban Westville Management Area.

The decision to grant Shaik medical parole was made yester after he again appeared before the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board of the Durban Westville Management Area, correctional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said last night.

It comes two days after ANC president Jacob Zuma, in an interview with the Weekender newspaper, said that if he became president after the April elections, he would pardon Shaik.

"It should be noted that in terms of section 75 (8) of the Correctional Services Act (Act 111 0f 1998), the 'decision of the board is final' and can only be reviewed by the Correctional Supervision and Parole Review board, led by a judge," Wolela said.

The department had requested a written report and would consider making comment only after studying it, he (Wolela) said.

Shaik's brother Mo insisted last night that he knew nothing about his brother's parole.

"We have been receiving phone calls on the matter since this afternoon but we haven't heard anything from the Department of Correctional Services or from any of his family," he said.

However, it's understood that the family alerted Zuma to Shaik's impending release earlier in the day.

Zuma said at the weekend that, given Shaik's health, he should have been released "long ago".

"Not just because of my sympathy, but because of the law of the country. If it had been someone other than Schabir, he would have been out by now.

"The prison authorities described to me a report given by professors who had come to check on him, professors from the medical aid company checking to see if he was cheating by being in hospital.

"These professors said to the prison authorities they were sitting on a time bomb, this man could go any time. This is the law. Once a man is sick at a particular level, there are options."

On pardoning Shaik once he became president, Zuma reportedly said: "If the law agrees, why not? Why should I discriminate against him because he happens to be my comrade and friend? How can I punish him for that?"

However, the decision to release Shaik on medical parole is bound to stir up a hornets' nest. The Correctional Services Act states that a prisoner can be released on medical parole only when an inmate is diagnosed as terminally ill by a doctor.

Correctional services committee chairperson and ANC MP Dennis Bloem was not immediately available for comment.

Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe, who also serves on the committee, said last night that medical parole was granted when a prisoner was terminally ill, usually with a degenerative disease, and was allowed to die a dignified and conciliatory death surrounded by their family.

"If this is the case with Mr Shaik, we obviously would sympathise and understand his release on compassionate grounds."

However, there were many hundreds of inmates in South African jails who were indeed suffering from degenerative and terminal diseases, and who were not being released under this section.

"Nothing that we heard the last time we (MPs) were briefed on this subject gave us the impression that Mr Shaik was suffering from a degenerative and terminal disease. It is potentially controversial and we would certainly require a great deal more information," Selfe said.

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal, Shaun Smillie, Jeff Wicks and The Star.