On his first day home from prison on Tuesday, "relieved" convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik spent it sleeping.

The former financial advisor to African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma served two years and four months of his 15-year prison term, spending most of the time in hospital due to high blood pressure, depression and chest pains.

After a parole board meeting on Monday, Shaik was granted medical parole.

He was transported to his Innes Road, Morningside home in a City-Med ambulance on Tuesday and was carried on a stretcher into his house at around 8am.

The ambulance was followed by a bakkie carrying correctional services officials, who escorted Shaik into his home.

An array of media gathered outside the gated property for hours, waiting to snap pictures of the businessman.

A security guard was stationed at the gate.

At one point, the Shaik family sent cans of cool-drinks outside to media.

In the absence of news, the scene outside the home took on a picnic-like atmosphere. Some reporters had brought camping chairs, others ate samoosas, shared cool drinks and chatted.

Curious motorists stopped to find out what was going on.

At around midday, Shaik's brother Yunis came outside and told media: "He's sleeping because he is gravely ill."

He said his brother was "relieved" and "happy" to be back home. He stressed that he was on heavy medication and needed to rest.

He said people in the final stages of terminal illness would qualify for medical parole.

Wolela said such a diagnosis was not done by department officials but by doctors who submit reports to the parole board, which then makes the decision.

Asked whether Shaik was terminally ill, Yunis replied: "He is gravely ill and that's why he is sleeping."

The parole board, he said, had decided to release his brother after examining the medical records.

Yunis also stressed that the terms and conditions of his brother's parole were the same as applied to all offenders.

The department said it had requested a written report from the parole board to check if procedures had been followed appropriately in "arriving at the decision".

"We [the family] will stay with him for a short while for support and to sort out home care," said Yunis.

He was unable to say what Shaik's first meal back home was.

Yunis explained that the correctional service officials who had arrived at the house had come to "set down the conditions of parole".

After speaking to the media, Yunis asked them to leave as other people who wanted to visit Shaik could not do so because they did not want to face the media.

Political parties questioned the decision to release Shaik.

Democratic Alliance spokesperson for correctional services James Selfe asked for more information regarding Shaik's parole. He said a prisoner could only receive medical parole if they were in the last stages of terminal illness.

"This will do much to dispel the notion that double standards are being applied," said Selfe.

Inkatha Freedom Party correctional services spokesman Sybil Seaton said the move came as "no surprise".

"... It proves that if you are an ANC comrade anything is possible: even a get-out-of-jail-free card."

She described Shaik's prison term as "nothing more than a farce and a waste of taxpayers' money".

Shaik was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2005 on two counts of corruption and one of fraud, which, among other things, related to an alleged bribe he negotiated between Zuma and a French arms company.

Zuma, the ANC presidential candidate in upcoming elections, said at the weekend that, given Shaik's health, he should have been released long ago.

Sapa