The parents of suspected drug mule Nolubabalo Nobanda didn’t even know that their daughter had a passport – let alone that she had left the country.
“Everyone was so shocked, very shocked, when they heard the news. They can’t associate this with her,” said the family’s spokesman, advocate Ntsiki Sandi, who added that they had thought she was in South Africa at the time of her arrest.
So far the family haven’t had contact with her, he said. “If her family had the money, her mother would be on a plane (to Thailand) tomorrow.”.
There are plans, he said, to raise money for the trip.
The South African ambassador to Thailand, Douglas Gibson, said on Wednesday he would be visiting Nobanda on Thursday when she is transferred from the police cells to the women’s prison in Bangkok.
The family are hoping they will learn more of Nobanda’s fate from Gibson.
“The family’s main concern is for her safety. We are also looking at what her chances of legal representation are and trying to see how the legal system works over there,” Sandi said.
News of Nobanda’s arrest had been kept a secret from her grandmother, who suffers from diabetes, until she kept hearing her granddaughter’s name on the radio.
A family member said she thought maybe her granddaughter had made some academic achievement. The family broke the news to her on Tuesday night.
The 23-year-old was arrested at an airport in Bangkok on Monday after 1.5kg of cocaine was discovered hidden among her dreadlocks.
Thai customs officials searched Nobanda when they noticed white powder in her hair. She later told authorities that she planned to meet someone at a hotel in Bangkok and hand over the drugs. She was to be paid R16 000 on her return to South Africa.
Sandi said Nobanda had returned to Grahamstown from Joburg, where she was apparently studying, two weeks ago. “It was rumoured that she was going around with a girl, but we don’t know who that was.”
Sandi could not say where she was studying. In 2007 Nobanda had been registered as a student at Wits University.
In an earlier statement, Wits denied that Nobanda was a student there.
Later, however, spokeswoman Shirona Patel said: “Based on new information and on further investigation, the university can confirm that Nolubabalo Nobanda was registered as a student at the university in 2007. We have no record of her having renewed her registration as a full-time student from 2008 to date. The university regrets any confusion caused pertaining to this matter.”
Meanwhile, Gibson told The Star that there are nine South Africans serving time in Thailand for drug offences.
“One South African has been serving a sentence in Thailand for 16 years already… there are those who are coming out only in 2032,” Gibson said, adding that part of the embassy’s role was to act as a conduit between the families and the convicts.
The DA called on International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to ensure that Nobanda’s human rights were protected.
The party also said it would be monitoring how the government handles the situation and would be writing to Nobanda. - The Star