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ID President Patricia de Lille has slammed convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik's application for a presidential pardon, saying ‘the application must be dismissed because it makes a mockery of the independence of the judiciary.

‘The court considered all the evidence before it and found Shaik guilty. Shaik went all the way to the Supreme Court of Appeal, where he lost once again,' Ms De Lille says.

The news was not new, according to the ID Leader, who says the Shaik brothers ‘did indicate last year that they would petition President Mbeki for a pardon.

‘Now that the Shaik family's number one protégé Jacob Zuma is President, they must know that Schabir's chances of being granted a pardon are even higher,' says De Lille.

‘However, one of the pardon conditions is that you must have served a substantial part of your sentence and on that basis alone Shaik fails hopelessly.

‘Shaik must now decide whether he wants to live or die because the fact that he has survived his "terminal illness" for this long is nothing short of a miracle,' De Lille says.