Durban - Cheryl Cwele’s attempt to get her prison term converted from one of jail time to one of correctional supervision would be opposed, the Correctional services department confirmed on Wednesday.
Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said: “The Department of Correctional Services will indeed oppose the application for the conversion of her sentence to correctional supervision.”
On Monday Cwele made a surprise appearance in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, where according to the Daily News, Cwele claimed in court papers that she believed she was eligible for her sentence to be converted to correctional supervision.
The Durban afternoon newspaper said Cwele cited case law that allowed for a conversion of her sentence.
However, on Wednesday Wolela said: “Mrs Cwele does not qualify for sentence conversion as she must still serve a number of years in custody.”
He said that this was according to the law and referred to section 73(7)(e) of Correctional Services Act (Act 111 of 1998 as amended).
Cwele, the former wife of Siyabonga Cwele, the minister for telecommunications and postal services and then-Minister of State Security, and her co-accused Frank Nabolisa, were convicted and sentenced to 12 years in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in May 2011 of conspiring to deal in drugs, and running drug mules to bring drugs into South Africa.
On appeal, their sentences were then subsequently increased to 20 years. However, a further appeal saw their sentences dropped by the Constitutional Court back to the original 12-year sentence.
So far Cwele has served three years of her 12-year sentence.
The Mercury newspaper in Durban quoted one of the drug mules - Tessa Beetge - as saying that Cwele needed to serve more time.
“Cwele was the one behind everything, the organising and the making of all plans … it would really be unjust,” she was quoted as saying.
Cwele, who was the former director of health at the Hibiscus Coast municipality, had recruited Beetge.
Beetge served five years and 11 months in a Brazilian prison after she was caught at Sao Paulo’s international airport with 10 kilogrammes of cocaine in her luggage. She had been sentenced to eight years imprisonment.
Cwele’s application was postponed on Monday to a date yet to be announced.
African News Agency