'Living hell' in paradise

2006-04-12 22:31

Tisha Steyn

George - For many people, Mauritius is an earthly paradise - but, for "drug mule" Johan van Wyk it is going to be a living hell for the next six years.

It takes the 26-year-old South African 15 minutes to clean the verandah outside the kitchen. For that, he receives R12 a week, or 15 cigarettes.

For the rest of the day, "Vannie" does nothing.

The qualified hairdresser is an inmate at the maximum-security Grand River Prison which houses 235 prisoners, according to the website of Foreign Prisoner Support Service.

And, he is due to stay there until June 2 2012 for a crime he says he knew nothing about.

Van Wyk did a friend "a favour" on August 21 2003.

He was not told what the favour would involve, he just had to get there.

His mother, Hannetjie Lombaard of Cape Town, said on Wednesday that the friend met Van Wyk at a shopping centre in Cape Town and gave him a pair of new jeans, a T-shirt and a pair of running shoes he had to wear in order for "the guys in Mauritius to recognise you".

Used as a drug mule

Police met Van Wyk at the airport in Mauritius.

Lombaard said: "They went with him to a hotel, where they searched his baggage.

"They cut up his soap, his jeans, and eventually his running shoes. They found 480g of heroin hidden in the soles."

Only then did he realise that he had been used as a drug mule.

He didn't get any money - only a prison sentence of seven years in a foreign country.

On June 2 last year, his case was heard for the first time. That day, he was found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced.

The Mauritian attorney who was appointed and had been paid R10 000 to represent Van Wyk, didn't even turn up at court that day.

Once a month, Van Wyk's mother sends him money - R250, which is mostly used for phone cards - and parcels containing food and clothing he wears underneath his prisoner's uniform.

Nomfanelo Kota, foreign affairs director of media liaison, said on Wednesday: "The government does not interfere when South Africans are held on crime charges - including drug smuggling - in foreign countries."

The government would not intervene to ensure that cases against South African citizens were properly investigated and that they received a fair trial.

"We treat them as sovereign countries and we do not interfere. South African law does not apply in other countries," she said.

Government has scant sympathy

"However, the government sends officials to pay consular visits to ascertain the circumstances under which South African nationals are held.

"Where detainees allege they are being treated unfairly, they must take it up with the human rights commissions of the countries where they are being held.

Foreign affairs deputy minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday South Africans must not "fall victim to the idea of making quick, easy money by being a drug courier".

- Die Burger