Cwele job in balance

The fate of convicted drug dealer Sheryl Cwele, wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga, will be decided at a disciplinary hearing.

Hibiscus Coast municipal manager S'bu Mkhize told a council meeting yesterday that the hearing to determine Cwele's future as director of municipal health services would go ahead.

Cwele is currently suspended without pay.

Four days after her conviction on May 5, the council agreed that Cwele would not receive a salary from June 10 and that a formal disciplinary hearing should take place.

The DA caucus leader in the Hibiscus Coast council, Douglas Rawlins, yesterday said he did not know all the details of the disciplinary hearing.

He said the hearing was originally set for three days. However, Mkhize yesterday said it would be heard on just one day.

Rawlins said an advocate had been appointed as the presiding officer of the hearing.

"I don't much expect that an advocate will preside over the matter. Cwele's legal representatives have been informed and I imagine that she will be present at the hearing," Rawlins said.

Cwele and Nigerian Frank Nabolisa were sentenced to 12 years in prison for recruiting drug mule Tessa Beetge, who is serving a prison sentence in Brazil, and attempting to recruit Charmaine Moss.

Moss turned down Cwele's and Nabolisa's offer because she suspected something was amiss.

Cwele was granted leave to appeal her conviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal, and is out on bail.