Sheryl Cwele, wife of state security minister Siyabonga Cwele, is accused of conspiring with a Nigerian man to bring cocaine into South Africa

Sheryl Cwele, wife of state security minister Siyabonga Cwele, is accused of conspiring with a Nigerian man to bring cocaine into South Africa by enlisting young white women as mules to travel overseas to collect the drugs."I wish to categorically state that I never knowingly participated in any drug trafficking, conspiracy or incitement to deal in drugs as set out in the indictment or at all," Cwele said yesterday in a bail application filed with the provincial high court.
Cwele, a 50-year-old municipal director of health and community services, was arrested last week at her workplace. The Pietermaritzburg High Court has scheduled her bail hearing for Friday.Allegations of Cwele's drug trafficking surfaced last year after the arrest of Tessa Beetge, a South African woman caught in Brazil in June with cocaine worth almost $300,000 .Beetge's family told a South African newspaper last year that Cwele had offered to find a job for her friend and former neighbour Beetge, who is listed in the indictment.Cwele and Frank Nabolis, a Nigerian arrested last month, face charges of conspiring to traffic drugs between Turkey, South America and South Africa.Cwele's bail application said she met Nabolis through an acquaintance and agreed to help him recruit two white people to work for his company.