Johannesburg - Convicted drug mule Tessa Beetge has asked the international relations department not to release information regarding her, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
“She (Beetge) said to us she does not want us to comment on the circumstances around her,” spokesman Nelson Kgwete said.
“We can only release the information when we have the permission of the person, if she allows us to release that information about her.”
According to a report on Tuesday, Beetge's family expect her to return to South Africa from Brazil by the end of March.
Beetge was caught with 10.2kg of cocaine in her luggage at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport in 2008.
Her mother Marie Swanepoel died in an East London hospital in October after a short illness.
Beetge was procured by Sheryl Cwele to smuggle cocaine from South America.
Cwele, the ex-wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, and her co-accused Frank Nabolisa were found guilty of drug dealing by the Pietermaritzburg High Court in May 2011.
The two tried to have their convictions overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2012, but instead the court increased their sentences from 12 to 20 years. - Sapa