Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik will remain on medical parole, eight years after his release for being terminally ill, said national spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services, Singabakho Nxumalo.
Nxumalo said the department could, by law, only send Shaik back to prison if he violated his parole conditions.
“Section 79 of the Correctional Services Amendment Act does not allow that, when a person is given medical parole, even if after years his medical condition has improved that we must take that person back to prison.
“I don’t know if Shaik’s health status has improved or not but I am saying in case it has improved, by law, we can not just take him back to prison unless he does not comply with parole conditions,” Nxumalo said.
DA spokesperson on Correctional Services James Selfe said the party would write to Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha to take the matter of Shaik’s parole to court.
“To determine whether he should return to prison to serve the rest of his term of imprisonment, or whether his parole conditions should be altered in such a way that the South African public no longer have to be fed the lie that he is still terminally ill.”
Nxumalo said the department would await a letter from the DA “to study it and respond accordingly”.
Shaik was convicted of two counts of corruption and one count of fraud in October 2007. He was released on medical parole in March 2009, after doctors said he was clinically depressed, was losing his eyesight, had a stroke and would die from “severe” high blood pressure.
Last week, Masutha revealed, in a response to a parliamentary question from the DA, that Shaik was still regarded as being “terminally ill”, despite his house arrest conditions being relaxed in 2015 so that he can work and attend sports and school events if necessary.
“It is clear that he was never in the final phase of any terminal disease or condition,” Selfe said.
Selfe described Shaik as “a person who was quite clearly released erroneously but much more likely released fraudulently on medical parole, who continues to make a mockery of the medical parole system”.
When contacted by The Mercury for comment on Monday, Shaik simply said “no comment”.