Drug mule’s aunt talks about snub at airport
CONVICTED drug mule Tessa Beetge’s aunt, Margie Olsen, has shrugged off this week’s reunion snub and says she will carry on with her life.
Olsen excitedly travelled to Johannesburg from the Eastern Cape this week for Beetge’s return to South Africa after serving a 5½-year sentence in a Brazilian prison.
But Beetge gave Olsen and the media the slip at O R Tambo International Airport, leaving her aunt clutching a bouquet of yellow roses she had brought along for her niece’s homecoming.
Speaking to Weekend Post from Johannesburg yesterday, Olsen said: “I accept what happened.
“Everybody had their reasons, but no one explained anything to me.
“Yes, I’ve tried to look for answers but I’m not expecting any.”
Olsen said she was unable to get in touch with her niece and had been excluded from all arrangements made for Beetge’s homecoming.
“Her [Beetge’s] ex-husband was part of yesterday [Thursday]. Although her two teenage daughters have not seen her yet, they have spoken to her over the phone.”
Olsen resigned herself to visiting an aunt and uncle in Johannesburg before hitting the road today to return to her home in Steynsburg in the Eastern Cape, about 350km from Port Elizabeth.
Beetge’s mother, Marie Swanepoel, who fought tirelessly to bring her daughter’s plight to the fore and have her recruiters – Frank Nabolisa and Sheryl Cwele – brought to book, died last year.
“I’m heartsore for Marie, she was waiting for Tessie to come home,” Olsen said earlier this week. “She [Marie] has been robbed of this moment.”
Swanepoel died in an East London hospital in October,
In 2008, Beetge was caught with 10.2kg of cocaine in her luggage at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport in Brazil.
It is understood that Beetge is staying in Pretoria with a fellow South African with whom she served time in Brazil.