Publication	The Witness
Date	2006-11-10
Reporter	S Makhanya, D Liebenberg, Sapa
Web Link	www.witness.co.za

Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik spent mere hours in the overcrowded Westville prison yesterday before being moved to a new prison at Empangeni, where he might have only one cell-mate.

Shaik arrived at the Westville prison minutes after 9 am, seated alone in the back of a police van.

The van sped through the prison gate before stopping a few metres inside, from where Shaik waved to the media and warders, before driving to the cells.

Dressed in a plain white T-shirt, blue jeans and tackies, Shaik earlier addressed the media outside the Durban High Court where he had gone to have his fingerprints taken and complete paperwork before his arrival at the prison.

A morose-looking Shaik commented: “This is a trying time for my family. I wish my family all of the very best, especially my wife and my son.

“To all the reporters I have given a hard time, I apologise.

“My heart is at peace and I am walking in the path of my Lord.”

His family followed him to the prison in a convoy of black BMWs. Once there, about 10 minutes after Shaik’s arrival, brothers Mo, Chippy and Yunus, and wife Zuleika, avoided media attention, getting into one car, which followed lawyer Reeves Parsee’s car inside the grounds.

Mo refused to talk to journalists, saying he had already issued a statement.

The statement said: “We will forever believe in Schabir’s innocence and the fact that his actions … were out of love, loyalty and comradeship.

“The past few years … have been extremely harrowing for him and for all of us. … Now that Schabir has been incarcerated, we appeal to the media to allow us to grieve the tragedy that has befallen our family.”

Despite confirmation from several sources that Shaik was indeed transferred to Empangeni, a Correctional Services spokesman denied it.

A warder at Empangeni told a Witness reporter he saw Shaik at that prison, and three sources confirmed the move to Sapa, but national Correctional Services spokesman Luphumpzo Kebeni said: “As far as I know, Shaik was not transferred. I don’t know where these stories come from.”

The police officer who drove Shaik to Westville prison remarked to the media as he left the prison again an hour later: “He won’t be here long”.

And moments after a prison van left Westville prison at noon, warders told the media: “There he goes!”

Meanwhile, in contrast to the hero’s send-off given to former ANC whip Tony Yengeni when he reported to prison earlier this year, there was no visible ANC presence at the prison yesterday.

ANC Youth League spokesman Senzo Mkhize said a lot of party members have not been escorted to jail and that there was no need to do that with Shaik.

“Please don’t compare Shaik and Tony Yengeni because Yengeni was a member of the national executive committee of the party and they are not the same. For Yengeni, it was politically relevant,” he said. He added that the party is mainly concerned about its deputy president, Jacob Zuma.

Although prisoners are permitted to apply for transfers under the amended Correctional Services Act, the reasons for Shaik’s swift transfer from Westville to Qalakabusha are unknown.

A warder at the Qalakabusha Correctional Centre told The Witness that even when the prison is overcrowded, the maximum number of people permitted in one cell is four ­ in contrast to the 40 to 50 people who share cells at Westville.

In cells at Qalakabusha, “there are two tables and two chairs and a bathroom that inmates share and other standard facilities”, he said.

Although sentenced to 15 years in jail, Shaik might serve five years or less. According to Marcus Gumede of the KZN Law Society, prisoners should serve a third of their sentence in custody as stipulated by the new law. “It depends on the nature of the crime, though. White-collar crime could mean serving less than a third *1,” he said.

KZN head of the SA Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights, Derrick Mdluli, said Shaik could be an asset to fellow prisoners.

“He could become a teacher or develop their skills and take his mind off the fact that he is imprisoned.”

However, Mdluli warned that the organisation will keep a close eye on the treatment Shaik receives. “It doesn’t matter how much money you are worth,” he said.