Convicted drug-dealer Sheryl Cwele says she is surviving only through the generosity of members of her church and relatives.
|||Convicted drug trafficker Sheryl Cwele, fired from her job at the Hibiscus Coast Municipality, says she is surviving only through the generosity of members of her church and relatives who have come to her aid.
Speaking candidly for the first time since she was convicted by the Pietermaritzburg High Court of recruiting young South Coast women to smuggle cocaine from Latin America, Cwele told the Daily News on Tuesday that she had turned to growing vegetables to feed herself.
The former wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele said she was was being supported financially by her mother, brother and members of her church.
“I don’t have any income at the moment,” she said. “I don’t even get any maintenance from the minister as my children are all over 18 years.”
Cwele was the municipality’s health services director until she was axed in October
after her conviction.
The 51-year-old mother of four was sentenced to 12 years, but was granted leave to turn to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
She is also challenging her dismissal from the municipality on the grounds that it was based on her conviction, now on appeal.
Cwele said it had been her faith that had kept her going as she watched as her friends turned their backs on her.
While not wanting to go into too much detail about her appeal, Cwele maintained her innocence. She believed that it was her willingness to help people whom she believed were in need that led to her being arrested on drug charges.
“All I believed I was doing at the time was helping people,” she said.
Cwele said the media had demonised her and painted her as an uncaring person.
“I know people have projected me as a person who shows no remorse,” she said. “But remorse means you are guilty. When you are innocent, you have a peace that not many will understand.”
Cwele said she was hurt when people she thought were her friends abandoned her during her trial. “Some told me right at the beginning that they would not be supporting me. It felt like everybody just left me.
“There were times I would just cry endlessly and I had to stop myself and say: ‘Hey, why are you crying? Where is your faith? Stop complaining about your life’.”
Cwele said she was also often derided when she left her home.
“It was especially hard doing normal things like going to a shopping centre. The media had painted me as this very bad person. People would point fingers at me and talk under their breath. There was a time when a man, who had mumbled something to his friend about me being a drug trafficker, hit me with a trolley in the shopping centre. I did not respond.
“I am the type of person who just goes on their way. I have never spoken back to those people.”
Cwele said she had also come to terms with her divorce.
“He had to choose,” she said. “In his mind he probably asked: ‘Do I go down with my wife and lose everything and let my children suffer?’ Maybe if I was in his situation I would do the same thing and divorce the woman.
“At least then I would get to keep my job and provide for my children. I looked at it that way and thought I can’t hate the man.”
She said that she found comfort in tending to her garden, where she spent hours tilling the soil.
“I never knew how fulfilling gardening was,” she said.
“It gives me pleasure to see people who look at my garden and admire it. The benefit of growing your own vegetables also is that I don’t have to worry about where I get the money to buy vegetables.”
Cwele, who said she had no money to pay for a lawyer, is studying labour law as she prepares to challenge her dismissal. The matter has been set down for arbitration on July 20.
“The worst part about this is that I am not employable at the moment because I can’t even send my CV out and look for a job because I have all this hanging over my head,” she said.
Despite all that has happened in the past year, Cwele said she had learnt a valuable lesson.
“Things are not what they seem in this world. I used to be the person who trusted everybody. And now I must learn not to accept everybody and I have learnt to be extra careful. Next time I will pray before I take any decisions.”