Marie Swanepoel told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Sheryl Cwele had assured her that her daughter, Tessa Beetge, would be safe overseas.

The mother of a 33-year-old drug mule serving eight years in a Brazilian jail wiped away tears as she described her daughter's excitement when the wife of the state security minister offered her a "job".
Testifying in the drug-trafficking trial of Siyabonga Cwele's wife, Sheryl, and of Nigerian national Frank Nabolisa, Marie Swanepoel told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Sheryl Cwele had assured her that her daughter, Tessa Beetge, would be safe overseas.

"After Sheryl put my husband's and my mind at rest, we agreed. We didn't suspect anything. We were happy Tessa was going overseas. It would be her first trip. She looked at it as a way of seeing the world. It was a trip that neither her mum nor dad had been on," Swanepoel said.

Her daughter had become friendly with Cwele when they were neighbours in the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast town of Port Shepstone. But the two lost contact after Beetge divorced and returned home to nearby Margate.

Swanepoel said Cwele had offered Beetge a job in London in 2008.

Posted in: Marie Swanepoel told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Sheryl Cwele had assured her that her daughter,Tessa Beetge,would be safe overseas.