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Heroin in the hood

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Lesego Moatshe. Picture: Twitter
Lesego Moatshe. Picture: Twitter

From the moment Lesego Moatshe stepped inside the women’s prison in northern Pretoria, she felt as if her life had become a movie.

But this was not quite the biopic the 27-year-old model and reality TV star had imagined.

Just a year before, she had been a finalist on the reality TV show South Africa’s Ultimate Brand Ambassadors, a talent search competition aimed at identifying future “leaders and philanthropists”. But in June 2014, she and her 49-year-old boyfriend, Kenneth Oguegbu, were arrested at their luxury home in Zambezi Country Estate.

Charged with a schedule 5 offence – dealing in 11kg of uncut heroin – they were initially denied bail and spent almost nine months in jail.

“For the [first] two weeks, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep; all I could do was just cry under the blanket. I couldn’t understand the system that they use there,” Moatshe says.

“The people that are in there, most of them use nyaope [drug cocktail]. They come in, and it’s like their home ... So for me it was a strange place to be,” she added.

Moatshe, who studied travel and tourism, has worked as an au pair and has taught Sunday school lessons at her church, says her arrest came as a huge shock to her family, who felt she would be the last person in their family to end up in jail.

Moatshe’s trial is scheduled to start in the Pretoria North Regional Court this week.

The state alleges that, along with Oguegbu and 29-year-old Ghanaian citizen Ali Shaibu, Moatshe was part of a drug-trafficking syndicate – a charge that all three flatly deny.

During a brief court appearance last month, she agreed to speak to City Press, not about the details of the case but about her experience since her arrest.

Dressed for court in a high-waisted blue skirt, cream blouse and grey high heels, Moatshe said the thing she struggled with most in prison was the hygiene.

“We were about 60 [prisoners] using two toilets and one shower. So every time you would have to shower there would be small worms around where you actually shower,” she said.

“You have to share ‘your own bed’ with someone else who has a different type of character, different hygiene. If I grew up like that, I could understand; maybe I could adjust. But I didn’t grow up like that.”

Although the police and the National Prosecuting Authority have been reluctant to reveal any details about the case, City Press has established that the bust was part of a wide-ranging investigation by the Hawks and the counter narcotics team at crime intelligence into the international heroin trade.

Known as Operation Stretch, the investigation – which was assisted by the US Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Royal Mounted Police – has focused on the movement of heroin between South Africa and the US and Canada, where demand for heroin has soared.

Earlier this year, the US Drug Enforcement Administration told City Press that this was in part due to a “disturbing trend” of “prescription drug abusers transitioning to heroin abuse”.

It is expected that part of the state’s case against Moatshe, Oguegbu and Shaibu will include video footage of the alleged heroin deal after police obtained authorisation in terms of section 252A to use an undercover agent to take part in
the deal.

Cliff Alexander, the lawyer representing Moatshe and Oguegbu, and whose high-profile clients include the Guptas and Radovan Krejcir, insists that the state’s case against his two clients is weak.

In Moatshe’s case, he says the only evidence against her was that she was driving the car in which the heroin was found.

Despite this, because the value of the drugs amounts to more than R50 000, if found guilty she faces 15 years in jail.

Corne Meyer, the head of security for the estate, was present during the bust.

“When [the police] arrived at the gate, they informed us we need to assist them. When [Moatshe] came through, the security knew about the police vehicle outside, and they let them come through,” he says.

“It was all unmarked vehicles. So when she drove into the garage, that’s when they hit her.”

Based on the 2015 price lists from the Hawks, the heroin that was seized is worth between R1.8 million and R2.75 million.

In addition to the heroin, the prosecuting authority confirmed the police also seized several cars, a “large amount of money, a money counter, a blender and a head sealer” from the couple’s home in Zambezi Estate – assets they value in total at R14.5 million.

Court records indicate that the state has also confiscated 10 passports belonging to Oguegbu, who is originally from Nigeria but has South African citizenship.

Oguegbu bought the couple’s property for R2.85 million in 2013, but houses here easily sell for R4.5 million. Another two in the estate appear to be registered in a relative’s name.

For an estate that prides itself on top-of-the-line security – with armed guards, on-and-off-site camera surveillance and a 16-string electric fence surrounding the property – the presence of two accused drug dealers has sparked the circulation of wild rumours.

“We had stories of: ‘There’s a drug lord on the estate and he’s selling to all the kids.’ He never did any of that in the estate,” Meyer says, adding that legally, the estate cannot force Moatshe and Oguegbu to leave – unless they receive a court order or the state takes possession of the properties.

“We had a lot of comeback from residents complaining, but we sat with them and the directors, and explained to them that legally we cannot do anything because it is his own property, it’s in his name.”

Moatshe said she has not only faced stigma from her neighbours, but also from her church and the people she grew up with.

“People tend to spice things up ... They won’t initially get the entire [story],” she said.

“People would come to me and say, ‘Is it true? ... You were actually transporting drugs overseas?’

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh, really, is that what they say?’”

The case continues on Wednesday.

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