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Johannesburg - A "gravely ill" South African woman fears for her life in a Venezuelan prison, where she has apparently been raped by prison guards, assaulted several times and has even been stabbed.
The only contact that Zenolia du Plooy, 41, has with the world outside the Instituto Nacional de Orientacion Femenina (Inof jail) in Los Teques is with a smuggled-in cellphone on which she is also able to access Facebook.
The divorced mother of a teenage boy told Beeld via telephone on Monday that she was sentenced to eight years in jail in November after officials found 799g of cocaine in her luggage at a Venezuelan airport.
"I don't touch drugs... I told the lawyer that I was innocent. He told me that if I admitted guilt, I would get eight years and if I denied guilt, I would get more. If they find drugs, you are guilty, right there. They aren't interested in investigations. That is why I signed this thing that I admit guilt."
She said she was raped by one of the guards in the police van on her way to the jail.
Naïve
Du Plooy's nightmare started in South Africa. According to her sister, Lizelle Oosthuizen-Anderka, Du Plooy was a "very naïve person".
"She was divorced last year. She went through a deep depression and lost her job as she was admitted to clinics so often." Then she got a job with a group of Nigerians who claimed to import and export African clothing.
"They said I would fly across the world, all expenses paid. My first trip was to Venezuela," said Du Plooy. She suspected nothing.
One evening, while she stood waiting for one of the Nigerians in the reception lobby of her hotel in Venezuela, someone grabbed her bag and ran away. But her Nigerian contact told her, "Don't worry, we will buy you another bag."
She packed this bag for the flight back to South Africa. She was approached by airport security while waiting for her flight at Maiquetia airport.
"They asked me if this was my bag and I said yes. The next moment they started breaking it open and hidden behind the compartments, they found about 700g of cocaine." She was arrested.
According to Du Plooy and her family, she is gravely ill and could die if she isn't sent back to South Africa. Her family have now appointed a human rights lawyer to approach the Venezuelan authorities and have her released for humanitarian reasons.
She suffers from systemic lupus erythematosus, an incurable disease that can be treated with the right medication. Without treatment, it can be fatal.
No help from embassy
She said the South African embassy in Caracas, the capital, had basically abandoned her and seven other South African prisoners, of whom two have babies. They didn't bring her her medicine, which her family had sent to her from South Africa.
Venezuela's prisons are notorious for violence, drugs and weapons. In 2007, 498 of the 21 201 prisoners were murdered.
Du Plooy said she was attacked and stabbed in the bathroom last week. On another occasion, she broke ribs when she was pushed down the stairs. "It is a jungle here. They take you away from the others and hurt you. It's just aggression. It's not as if they get any pleasure from it."
She said women who "talked" were killed and gang members made it look like suicide. She had, at great cost, smuggled in a cellphone. "You can get anything here."
Her family sends her money through a middleman, as she has to buy almost everything for herself in prison.
Since her arrest eight months ago, she has been living off tuna and bread. "Other countries' embassies regularly bring their people toiletries. Ours isn't interested. They were last here seven months ago and then every South African only got a bottle of shampoo and a roll of toilet paper."
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