"The programme will make her see how drugs had led other prisoners to rape and commit murders"

IMPRISONED Sheryl Cwele will have to tell Westville Prison social workers what drove her to become a drug dealer.

Within the next 21 days, Cwele will be quizzed on personal circumstances that might have led her to commit the crime.

The 50-year-old is the estranged wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele and was a health manager at the Hibiscus Coast municipality when she and Nigerian, Frank Nabolisa, recruited Tessa Beetge to smuggle drugs into South Africa.

"A committee of social workers will assess her personal circumstances, including those that made her commit the crime she has been imprisoned for.

"They will then ascertain what programme is suited for her," KwaZulu-Natal Department of Correctional Services regional commissioner Mnikelwa Nxele said.

Cwele and Nabolisa's Supreme Court of Appeal bid to overturn their conviction last year failed and their sentences were increased from 12 years to 20 years on Monday.

Nxele said Cwele would be a suitable candidate for the drug programme though she was not a user.

"The court said she ought to have known the effects of drugs on society. The programme will make her see how drugs had led other prisoners to rape and commit murders," Nxele said.

Cwele gave up her freedom hours before she was expected to turn herself in to begin her lengthy prison term yesterday. She was told to surrender to the Pietermaritzburg High Court before 1pm yesterday.

But a sombre Cwele, accompanied by her attorney Madoda Nxumalo, and a man she identified as her brother, rushed to the court registrar at 8.20am, 10 minutes before the stipulated time for her surrender had even begun.

Though her attire oozed confidence, Cwele's face told a different story. Her eyes gave the impression that she had been crying for days.

She avoided eye contact with journalists and photographers as she was taken to a holding cell. An hour later a police van arrived to transport Cwele to Westville Prison in Durban, where she will serve her sentence.

She arrived in Durban where she was admitted to the prison system and changed into a prison uniform .

Nxele said Cwele would undergo a a full medical examination before orientation into prison life.

"She will be taken to the female correctional facility and will share a cell with others.

"I have not yet ascertained if the medical examination has taken place and if Cwele had presented any medical problems," Nxele said yesterday afternoon.

Minister Siyabonga Cwele has remained mum on his former wife's crime. His spokesman Brian Dube yesterday said the minister would also not comment on Cwele's imprisonment. Their divorce was finalised on August 23 last year in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. They lived apart since 2000.