Freed SA drug mule can come home

The department of home affairs has given the South African embassy in Thailand permission to issue drug mule Thando Pendu a temporary passport so she can travel home.

This was confirmed to the Dispatch by home affairs spokesperson David Hlabane on Thursday.

“An official spoke to her [Pendu] parent earlier today. We have sent a request to the SA embassy to issue her with a temporary passport so she can travel home,” Hlabane said.

The department had been accused of dragging its heels on the 33-year-old’s deportation from the International Detention Centre in Bangkok.

On Wednesday the Dispatch broke the story that Pendu, of Thabong township in the Free State, was released from the city’s Klong Prem Prison last week, but was unable to find passage home because home affairs had not verified her citizenship to the embassy.

On Wednesday, the department confirmed that Hlabane was a South African citizen, but said it had not received a request to clarify her citizenship “outside of media enquiries”.

This was hotly disputed by a Pretoria woman, Hannetjie Strauss, who has been facilitating the process to bring Pendu home. Strauss, a drug counsellor for 20 years, corresponds with South African drug mules jailed in Thailand.

She is playing a key role in getting Pendu back to SA.

“That definitely is not the case,” she said of Wednesday’s statement. “They know about it. I’ve been speaking to officials from the department of international relations and co-operation, and they told me they’re waiting for home affairs which has been informed.

“Even the lady I spoke to at home affairs yesterday (Wednesday) said it’s not fair for a South African to be kept from coming home like this.”

But on Thursday morning, Strauss spoke to a senior official from home affairs.

This time, she said, she was asked for contact numbers for Pendu’s mother and family.

Half an hour later she told the Dispatch: “The official just called me back to tell he had called Thando’s mother and they were working on it,” she said.

On Thursday afternoon, Strauss reached out again.

“The official gave the embassy permission to give a temporary passport for Thando to come home.”

In October 2008, Pendu, then 23, was caught with 2kg of heroin strapped to her body at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. She had accepted an offer to drive ambulances in Bangkok, but has maintained she was set up by a drug syndicate to act as a decoy while the big drug smugglers slipped through unnoticed.

They know about it. I have been speaking to officials