INLSA
Schabir Shaik
Jackie Selebi will not have to be terminally ill to get medical parole, and Schabir Shaik may play golf with impunity.
The new medical parole laws are now in force, and appear designed to benefit both high-profile prisoners.
The law was passed a year ago but was not in operation until the commencement date of March 1, which was set and signed two days before that by President Jacob Zuma and Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. It was released this week by the government printer.
The old law stated that prisoners “in the final phase of a terminal disease or condition” could be considered for medical parole, “to die a consolatory and dignified death”.
It has been broadened so that medical parole may be granted if the prisoner “is suffering from a terminal disease or condition or if such offender is rendered physically incapacitated as a result of injury, disease or illness so as to severely limit daily activity or inmate self-care”.
This description appears to fit Selebi’s situation.
The disgraced former national police commissioner lost his appeal and started serving his 15-year jail sentence for corruption in December. He collapsed on hearing of the appeal decision, and has been in and out of hospital since then with diabetes and kidney problems, which need dialysis.
“It was tailor-made for Selebi,” said Pretoria lawyer Julian Knight, who has dealt with many parole cases.
It is also a rewrite that could benefit Clive Derby-Lewis, who was jailed for 25 years for Chris Hani’s death in 1993, and who was denied ordinary parole last year. He is reported to have cancer.
Yesterday, Correctional Services Ministry spokesman Sonwabo Mbananga said no application for medical parole had been received from, or on behalf of, Selebi or Derby-Lewis.
Shaik, Zuma’s former financial adviser, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2006 after being convicted on fraud and corruption charges.
He was released on medical parole in 2009 after spending most of his time in hospital.
Since then public queries have been raised about his apparent return to health – he has been seen out and about, including on the golf course – and whether he should be returned to jail.
The new parole law no longer includes the expectation that a medical parolee will die, so Shaik’s recovery is now legally covered.
It allows for the cancellation of medical parole “provided that no placement on medical parole may be cancelled merely on account of the improved medical condition of an offender”.
Mbananga said the change was needed because research indicated that 36 percent of those released on medical parole did not die soon after as their illnesses became manageable.
He said no applications resulting from the broadened definition of medical parole had been received yet.
“We are expecting an increased number of applications, naturally, because the criteria have been relaxed,” he said.
Mbananga said 289 cases had been considered for medical parole over the past five years. He could not say how many had been approved.
Last month Mapisa-Nqakula announced the new medical parole advisory board, which is independent of her department and chaired by two doctors.
“Only the very sick will be freed,” she said at the time.
“Even if you have HIV and a low CD4 count or TB, you can still be given medicines to improve your health inside prison, meaning that you stay inside,” she said.
