Shaik has applied for a Presidential Pardon

World and Business / Corruption | Accountability / heywena.co.za / Monday, 19 October 2009 10:51

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has confirmed that Schabir Shaik has applied for a Presidential Pardon.

The Presidency confirmed to the DA that it had indeed received an application from Mr Shaik, for a Presidential Pardon, on 24 April 2008. The Presidency could not confirm the status of that application.

If President Zuma grants this application it will constitute a decisive step toward the complete corruption of the South African soul.

Schabir Shaik’s conviction constituted a rare victory for South Africa justice system in the fight to keep a relentless ruling party, which is determined to bend the rule of law to its own will, at bay. If his actions are pardoned, it will signify to the South African public that, even when the justice system prevails, its impact is undermined, its ruling negated and its meaning subverted.

Under no circumstances must the President consider this application. He must be open with the South African public and immediately deny that he will grant Mr Shaik application. Not to do so would further speculation and fuel the perception that he is looking on this request favourably.

(A detailed explanation of our correspondence with the Presidency follows below.)

Regulations require that an individual wishing to apply for a Presidential Pardon, must first apply to the Minister of Justice; that application is then forwarded on to the Presidency. This must happen because the Department of Justice is responsible for motivating to the Presidency either in favour or in opposition to the application. It thus appears that the Department of Justice has already considered or is in the process of considering Mr Shaik’s application.

The law also states that an applicant must meet certain criteria in order to qualify -- that he must have served a significant part of his sentence, for example, or have shown remorse for his crime. Schabir Shaik has demonstrated none of these things. If anything his sentence was farcical.

Schabir Shaik and those loyal to him in the ANC government have done everything in their power to dilute the effect of his sentence and undermine the impact of the guilty judgment handed down against him. For Shaik to be pardoned, would be a travesty of justice, and would further highlight the ANC government’s utter disrespect for the constitutional principle of the rule of law.

DA correspondence with the Presidency over Schabir Shaik pardon:

Time of Call	Who was phoned	What was said
09h14	Switchboard. No answer.	09h25 - call dropped
09h26	Office of the Spokesperson to the President.	09h27 - answered by spokespersons office - call transferred. Answered by Legal Services - when asked whether Shaik had applied for a pardon, there was silence… followed by a "not sure". Call was then transferred. 09h28 - call answered, the official would not say which department. The question was re-asked and the official said they would "transfer you to someone who can check on the database". 09h30 - we were asked to give details so that they could refer the question to the Communications department. When we asked for Communications department details, the official said that they would transfer the call. 09h31 - transferred back to presidency switchboard who then said they would transfer me to the relevant person. Line rang from 09h31 to 09h33 when the call was cut off.
09h33	Office of the Deputy Director General: Private Office of the President	Answered, but put on hold. 09h34 - call was answered by a person at switchboard. 09h35 - a person from Legal Services answered, and said they did not know if Shaik had applied for a pardon - they said she would transfer me to another person. 09h35 - put on hold again. 09h36 - was put through to the relevant official’s voicemail.
09h37	Private Secretary's Office	An official answered and transferred the call. 09h37 – official in the President’s Private Secretary’s Office answered and said that they were “not sure” and that they would check. Put on hold. 09h38 - the official confirmed that Shaik “did apply”. We then asked when the application was received and the official replied: “24 April 2008”. They also said that the Presidency was unsure of the status of the application, that the person had just looked on the database.