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| Nontando Pendu & Hazel Friedman |
On June 22nd,
after spending more than a decade in a Thai prison for a crime she was forced
to commit, 34-year-old Nontando Pendu returned home. At the age of 23, she was sentenced
to 25 years in prison for drug trafficking. Her sentence was reduced through
the annual amnesties issued by the Thai Monarch. But Nontando should be
regarded as a victim of human trafficking, not as a drug smuggler because the
circumstances leading to her crime cover the classification of human
trafficking as defined by the International Organisation on Migration.
In 2009, Special Assignment producer Hazel Friedman met Nontando on a visit
to Bangkok’s Lard Yao prison and secretly recorded their interview. She related
her story of heartbreak and betrayal after having been lured to Thailand with
the promise of a job driving ambulances. On landing, she was informed that she
had to smuggle drugs and if she refused, she would be killed by the Nigerian
syndicate that recruited her. Unable to swallow the drugs, they were strapped to
her body like the arsenal of a suicide bomber. While Thando was being arrested
at Bangkok Airport, four South African professional drug mules slipped through customs
undetected, with much larger quantities of drugs.
Nontando’s story formed the fulcrum
of subsequent Special Assignment
documentaries and a book on the transnational drug trade entitled Dead Cows for Piranhas, written and published
by Producer Hazel Friedman.
The Return revisits Nontando’s experience and celebrates her
return home.
Watch Special Assignment on SABC3 on Sunday evening at 21:30 and on the
News Channel.
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