Nolubabalo Nobanda did not fit the police’s profile of a drug mule. She matriculated from one of SA’s top girl’s schools before heading to Wits University.
But on Tuesday night, 23-year-old Nobanda, who is originally from Grahamstown, was spending her second night in a Thai jail, the institution that is likely to be her home for a long time to come. She is the second South African drug mule to make international headlines this week.
On Monday, Janice Linden, 36, was executed in China. Linden was put to death for attempting to smuggle 3kg of tik (crystal methamphetamine) through Baiyun International Airport in China three years ago.
Nobanda is unlikely to suffer Linden’s fate. She was caught on Monday with 1.5kg of cocaine hidden in fake dreadlocks. In Thailand, cocaine is classified as a schedule two drug, meaning that she could face imprisonment of 20 years or a maximum of life.
According to an international legal firm that specialises in Thailand, Siam Legal, it is only heroin that qualifies for the death penalty in the South Asian kingdom.
On Tuesday, Nobanda’s friends and family expressed surprise at her arrest. A family member, who did not wish to be named, described Nobanda as an “intelligent girl”.
“She fell into being told she was going to get money. Look, I don’t know the background. As a family we are surprised. We are hurt. We are disgraced, I hope you can respect that,” the person said.
Nobanda’s Facebook profile revealed that she matriculated from Victoria Girls High School in Grahamstown, in 2006 and that she attended Wits University. The Star understands she was studying “something in the legal field”.
On Tuesday, Nobanda’s arrest trended globally on Twitter.
“I may not know this Nolubabalo girl, but I feel sorry for her. But I feel sorry for her family more,” said one tweeter. Another user was less forgiving: “I had ur back till I discovered> those drugs are worth £93 000 and you risked your life for £1 200 #DumbAss.”
Nobanda was arrested after Thai customs officials noticed white powder in her hair. She arrived in Bangkok on a Qatar Airways flight from São Paulo in Brazil via Doha. She had cocaine wrapped in plastic packets and concealed in her dreadlocks.
She told officials that she was meant to hand the drugs over to someone at a hotel in Bangkok. From there she was supposed to fly back to SA, where she would receive a payment of R16 000.
SA’s ambassador to Thailand, Douglas Gibson, said embassy officials would see Nobanda on Thursdsay. Gibson noted Thailand can theoretically pass the death penalty, but that he was aware of only two people having been executed in the past 10 years.
“Thousands of people are in prison here for drug smuggling, including 12 South Africans,” he said.
National police spokesman Colonel Vishnu Naidoo said drug mules usually resorted to the crime because they had fallen on hard times and came from impoverished backgrounds.
He said police used profiling to identify drug traffickers. However, Nobanda doesn’t appear to fall into this category. - The Star