As the Presidency maintains its silence about convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik's application for a presidential pardon, the chances of his medical parole being reversed are getting slimmer.

By Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Zizi Kodwa had not responded to repeated messages asking whether President Jacob Zuma had applied his mind to Shaik's application for a pardon, as he promised in October when it came to light.

At the same time, Inspecting Judge of Correctional Services, Deon van Zyl, said he was considering a request by DA MP James Selfe to review the decision to release Shaik on medical grounds.

Since his release in March in 2009 because of "life-threatening hypertension", Zuma's former financial adviser has been seen around Durban, shopping, dining and playing golf and apparently in fair health.

His release came about six months before amendments to the Correctional Services Act went into effect, giving the judge the right to review his parole.

Before that, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and her national commissioner were the only ones who could request a review.

Mapisa-Nqakula said in 2009 that she would not go back on the decision of her predecessor, Ngconde Balfour, to stand by Shaik's release.

Judge Van Zyl said he was consulting legal experts on whether the amended act could be applied retrospectively, or whether it applied only to medical parole cases after the new law came into effect. "We can only get involved if the law is retrospective," he said.

The judge said the amended act did not stipulate that it should apply to earlier cases. He was likely to respond to Selfe's letter of request next week.

Selfe on Wednesday night said that if his request to Judge Van Zyl failed, there was still the option of appealing to prisons head, Tom Moyane, to send the decision for reconsideration.

The six-month period for asking the courts to review the parole decision expired in 2009.

"Shaik's parole needs to be reviewed because it was wrong and unlawful and because he was not terminally ill.

"It is a blight on the system of parole as a whole, and as long as the matter is not put right, people will view the medical parole systems as flawed," Selfe said.

People were already saying on radio talk shows that former police commissioner Jackie Selebi, sentenced this month to 15 years for corruption, would probably get terminally ill as soon as he entered prison, Selfe added.

A government review of the medical parole system is under way, with the proposed changes expected to be considered by a cabinet committee on Thursday.

These would provide for prisoners to be released on medical parole on humane grounds when seriously ill, but they need not be terminally ill.

Mechanisms to send back to jail those who recovered from their illnesses are also expected.

The changes are to be done in the form of an amendment to the Correctional Services Amendment Act, rather than changes in regulations as Mapisa-Nqakula had wanted.

About 60 percent of "terminally ill" prisoners released on medical parole recover, according to Department of Correctional Services figures.

    * This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on August 12, 2010