The state security minister’s wife, Sheryl Cwele, has gone to ground following her conviction on a drug dealing charge with co-accused Frank Nabolisa.
When The Mercury contacted Cwele just after 10am on Sunday, a relative who answered her landline said she was asleep and would not go to church.
Soon after that, Cwele sent an SMS to The Mercury saying: “Please don’t call me!”
Cwele, 50, and Nabolisa, 42, recruited two South Coast women, Tessa Beetge and Charmaine Moss, on the pretext of arranging them overseas jobs, although the plan was to get them to smuggle cocaine into South Africa.
On Monday, Beetge will find out that the two were found guilty of drug dealing in the Pietermaritzburg High Court last week, and that Judge Piet Koen sentenced them to 12 years’ imprisonment each on Friday.
Moss turned down the job offer after Cwele told her that it entailed bringing a parcel for Nabolisa.
However, Beetge accepted the offer and was later arrested for drug trafficking after Brazilian authorities found cocaine in her possession at Sao Paulo airport.
She is serving an eight-year jail term in that country.
Her mother, Marie Swanepoel, said she had contacted Brazilian authorities on Friday evening and broken the news that Cwele and Nabolisa had been found guilty.
“I told them that Frank was in jail and Sheryl was out on bail for now, and that they should watch the television,” she said.
Swanepoel said she would call Beetge, who turns 34 on Monday, to wish her a happy birthday and tell her that Nabolisa and Cwele had been convicted of drug dealing.
The drug dealers have been granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
Cwele, a mother of four and director of health and community services at the Hibiscus Coast municipality, will know on Monday if she still has a job with the municipality.
She has denied knowingly participating in a drug-trafficking conspiracy.
Hibiscus Coast municipality spokesman Simon Soboyisa said on Sunday that Cwele, who is married to State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, had been on leave as she had been attending her trial.
“The senior management and leadership of the municipality will look at Cwele’s contract versus the judgment.
“We will also take into consideration that she has appealed,” he said.
Soboyisa said Cwele’s conviction was material to her position at the municipality and, given that she had been sentenced on Friday, he would only know on Monday what her fate would be.
The National Prosecuting Authority is also expected to be in touch with Brazilian authorities to formally notify them of the outcome of the case.
State advocate Ian Cooke is expected to be in touch with the Brazilian public defender’s office, which is expected to now begin to fight for Beetge’s early release.
The DA in the Hibiscus Coast municipality said it would try to force the issue on to the council agenda on Tuesday, but expected to be opposed.
Dave Snashall, a DA councillor in the municipality, called for Cwele’s dismissal and said the party would “press for the matter to be brought up on the agenda” until action was taken. - The Mercury