The South African public has been defrauded yet again. On the first occasion Shaik was involved in some rather “imaginative” business dealings involving high-ranking government officials and public funds, for which he was convicted on fraud and corruption charges. Then our intrepid businessman schtupped Joe Public yet again by conveniently becoming sick; which effectively commuted his richly deserved stay in prison, into a tenure at an “upmarket” hospital; at the taxpayers expense.
And now, the final insult to all decent South Africans has been realized with the release of Shaik, not from prison, as you would expect but from the hospital where he “served” almost all of the 28 months of his 15-year jail term. But perhaps the greater insult is the actions of the Correctional Services Minister, Ngconde Balfour who apparently “applied his mind” and decided that Shaik’s release was correct because it satisfied the requirements of a medical parolee. He has further unilaterally decided that there are no grounds for review of his decision. And judging by the pictures of Shaik upon his release, he is the healthiest looking terminally-ill person I’ve ever seen and if reports by hospital staff are anything to go by, he was certainly “living it up” in hospital.
Coming back to the issue of the Minister “applying his mind” to the situation: I wonder if you, like me is thinking that the Minister applied his mind to his personal situation rather than to the public interest. Could it be that the Minister applied his mind and realized that releasing Shaik was in his (the Minister’s) own best interest to solicit favour with certain political figures. I wonder?
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