SA embassy officials ask to meet ‘drug-mules’

Indonesian customs officers check the quality of crystal methamphetamine near South African suspect Brett Savage, sitting left. It was found in his baggage. Photo: Firdia Lisnawati /AP

Indonesian customs officers check the quality of crystal methamphetamine near South African suspect Brett Savage, sitting left. It was found in his baggage. Photo: Firdia Lisnawati /AP

Published Nov 8, 2011

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The South African embassy in Indonesia has asked the government there for access to two South Africans arrested with R7 million worth of crystal methamphetamine in their possession.

Officials are still waiting for the request to be approved.

Brett Savage, from Townsview in Joburg, was arrested on October 19 carrying just under 3kg of the drug known locally as tik.

Four days later, Kedibone Sheila Motshweneng was arrested with just under 2.5kg of the same drug.

But Albie Laubscher, acting chief director consular services within the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, said no formal communication of the arrests was received from the Indonesian government until November 4.

The embassy became aware of the arrest through media reports in the local indonesian newspapers.

Laubscher said they still did not know what charges Savage and Motshweneng were facing.

“Until the embassy has had an opportunity to visit the detainees and independently determine the circumstances, Dirco (the Department of International Relations and Co-operation) cannot comment,” he said.

Laubscher added that locally, a detainee had the right to nominate a person with whom information on his or her arrest could be shared and whether or not privileged detail may be provided to the media.

Savage’s family, who don’t want to be named, said on Monday they had still not received official information that he had been arrested.

Brett, who turned 43 in September, was a manager at the Grand Central restaurant in Melrose Arch for several years, they said.

The Star could not reach Motshweneng’s family.

It is understood that both face a possible death sentence under Article 113 of Indonesia’s anti-narcotics laws.

Savage, a single father, has two children – a 14-year-old daughter who has a two-week-old baby, and her 12-year-old brother. The children’s mother is in the UK.

Six days after Savage was arrested, his daughter gave birth to his grandchild.

Savage and Motshweneng were among six drug mules caught as part of a Bali syndicate, according to media reports in the Jakarta Post newspaper.

Savage was arrested at Ngurah Rai International Airport after arriving on a Singapore Airlines flight from Joburg via Singapore.

Customs officials had apparently noticed an unusual item during a routine X-ray of Savage’s baggage, and the officers opened his suitcase and found the drugs.

The reports said that following Savage’s arrest, two other people – an Indonesian citizen allegedly supposed to receive the drugs, and a Nigerian – were arrested in Jakarta.

Motshweneng – believed to be a librarian and a single mother in South Africa – was the next to be arrested after her arrival at Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Later, two more Indonesians were arrested.

The first, a woman, was arrested in a hotel in Bali. The second, a man, was arrested in East Java. - The Star

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