Cape Town — The credibility of the parole system has been damaged by the release of President Jacob Zuma 's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, on medical parole, the head of the Council for Corrections, Judge Siraj Desai, said yesterday.

Medical parole is legally applicable only to terminally ill prisoners but since his release this year, Shaik has been seen driving around Durban, celebrating in a restaurant and reportedly playing golf. Two successive correctional services ministers, Ngconde Balfour and Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, have refused to refer the matter to the parole review board, which Desai also heads.

While briefing Parliament's correctional services committee on the operations of the council, Desai was asked by Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe about the image of parole in the eyes of the public, to which he responded that the credibility of parole as a correctional instrument had been damaged.

He suggested the law be changed to remove the power to refer paroles from the hands of the minister and the commissioner and given to the Council for Corrections.

Selfe said later that Shaik's medical parole "has become an extremely controversial matter as it is believed that Mr Shaik did not qualify for release in terms of the act". "This scepticism undermined the credibility of the parole system as a whole, something that Judge Desai has conceded," he added.

Giving the council the power to review parole decisions would "go a long way toward making the parole process more transparent and credible," Selfe said.

"SA currently has two parole systems; one for the rich and politically connected and another for those that do not have connections."

In an annual report, discussed in the committee yesterday, Inspecting Judge of Prisons Deon van Zyl said "from a sample of 269 death reports received during early 2009, it appears that in 230 (86%) cases the inmates received medical treatment prior to their death".

"Although medical parole was considered in 36 (14%) of these cases, the inmates in question were not granted medical parole prior to their passing away.

"From this it may be inferred that medical parole is not considered in the majority of cases where inmates are terminally ill. During 2008 only 54 inmates were released on medical parole."