SA woman jailed for 12 years in Zimbabwe on ‘drug dealing’ charges

Shila Khumalo was unable to deal with the gravity of her situation earlier this week, after she was convicted by a court in Zimbabwe. The South African national was busted with up to 60 bags of cocaine in her possession earlier this year, and even in a best-case scenario, she now faces a decade behind bars.

Who is Shila Khumalo? South African jailed in Zimbabwe for drug offences

When her sentence was handed down, the woman – who was condemned by Chief Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi – collapsed in the dock, and had to be helped to her feet. The case against Khumalo was fairly damning…

• She was convicted of dealing in dangerous drugs by a court in Harare, after pleading not guilty.
• Khumalo was travelling from Brazil when ‘bags of cocaine’ were discovered in her luggage.
• The 50-year-old had also swallowed ‘about a kilogram of the drugs’ to conceal them.
• The drugs in question were allegedly worth more than half a million rand.
• It’ll be a 12-year jail sentence for the trafficker, with two years suspended based on ‘good behaviour’.

Banged up abroad: Gauteng woman, aged 50, set to spend a decade in Zim jail

It’s understood that Shila Khumalo is initially from Johannesburg, and was prevented from leaving the airport via the green route by immigration officials. Lawyers staunchly defended their client, but ultimately, failed to convince the judge.

Khumalo’s legal team argued that the drugs were not intended to be dealt, but rather, were for her own personal use. However, we are talking about insane quantities for just one person – and Mutevedzi saw right through it.

Khumalo was arrested at Robert Mugabe Airport after arriving on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Brazil. Cocaine was found in her luggage. She then swallowed 60 balls of cocaine, 58 of which she later excreted in detention. Zimbabwe has become a transit point for illicit drugs. pic.twitter.com/MxfwhcUk2t

— TheNewsHawks (@NewsHawksLive) September 15, 2021