The family of dreadlock drug smuggler Nolubabalo Nobanda said recently that they heard she is scheduled to appear in court in three months.
Nobanda’s family said they got an email from the South African Embassy in Thailand saying that she was OK and that her court date was in three months, the Star reported.
Nobanda was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Dec. 12 with 1.5kg of cocaine hidden in her dreadlocks. She had arrived in Bangkok on a Qatar Airways flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil by way of Qatar.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Patrick Ngcipu, her stepfather, said their lawyer, Ntsiki Sandi, would go to Thailand for two to three weeks. Sandi was still trying to secure a visa. He would go alone this time, and a family member would accompany him on the second trip.
Ngcipu said the family were still trying to cope with the news of Nobanda’s incarceration. “We are trying to be okay,” he said.
He was loath to discuss Sulezi Rwanqa, mentioned in media reports as a friend of Nobanda’s who had accompanied her to Thailand.
“According to what I have heard, they are still looking for her. She has been my child’s friend for a few months. She is from a township in Grahamstown. Our family knew her,” he said.
He said the family had not had contact with Rwanqa’s family, but he had heard she had been calling her own family for help, but they apparently had not responded.
Ngcipu said that he had heard that Rwanqa was stuck in Thailand.
