RSS 2.0 FeedNovember 2011 Volume 38, Southern Africa
SA SCHOOL HEAD HELD OVER DRUGS IN LONDON
A Durban headmistress will spend the Christmas and New Year holidays behind bars in the UK after authorities found 6kg of cocaine in her luggage. Annabella Momplé was arrested on December 3 at Heathrow Airport.
According to a UK Border Agency spokesman, she was charged with “attempting to import a class A substance” and appeared in the Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court. She is due to appear in court again on January 17.
The 46-year-old single mother of one and headmistress of Carrington Primary School had travelled to London from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Yesterday, her brother, Paddy Harper, said she had told the family that the Department of Education had arranged for her to visit the UK and Brazil. She was travelling on her Irish passport.
He said that, though the family were shocked at her arrest, they believed she must have had financial problems if the allegations against her were true.
“My parents have been helping her financially and I’ve been helping out with her son and his education,” said Harper.
“She has an impeccable reputation as a school principal – the Education Department holds her in very high regard – that’s what makes this sequence of events even more bizarre,” he said.
The UK Border Agency emphasised its tough approach to drug smuggling: “UK Border Agency officers are on constant alert, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to keep class A drugs and other banned substances out of the UK.
“We are determined to prevent this terrible trade, which can have such a destructive effect on the life of so many.”
Last week, two other South African women made headlines in connection with drug trafficking. Janice Linden, from KwaZulu-Natal, was executed in China for trying to smuggle 3kg of tik into that country and Nolubabalo Nobanda, from Eastern Cape, was arrested in Thailand with 1.5kg of cocaine allegedly hidden in her dreadlocks.
African Christian Democratic Party MP Cheryllyn Dudley said the party had called on the government to warn people of the consequences of drug trafficking.
“Shockingly, they are not the only South Africans to have been caught. As many as 12 other South Africans are in Thai jails having been convicted of smuggling. Unacceptably large numbers of South Africans are also doing time in South America,” said Dudley.
