Correctional Services Department should disclose grounds for Shaik's medical parole

The purpose of medical parole is to release terminally ill offenders so that they can die a "dignified and consolatory" death in the presence of their family and friends. The fact that Mr Schabir Shaik is to be released on medical parole must mean that he is now in such a position.

Mr Shaik is a high profile and controversial offender. While his medical condition is confidential, it would be appropriate for the Department of Correctional Services to disclose the grounds on which Mr Shaik qualified for medical parole. This will do much to dispel the notion that double standards are being applied.

This is all the more so because there are many hundreds of terminally ill offenders in our prisons who may, and quite possibly do qualify for medical parole. Other offenders have had to approach the courts to secure their release on medical parole, as Simon Mazibuko had to do in the Pretoria High Court in 2005 - a case that was opposed by the Department.

The longer-term solution lies in laying down defensible criteria for determining on what basis inmates will qualify for parole, and for applying these criteria uniformly across the country.

Statement issued by James Selfe MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on correctional services, March 3 2009

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