SA drug mule Thando Pendu is a free woman – or at least she should be.Pendu, 33, of Thabong township in Welkom in the Free State, was released from Bangkok’s Klong Prem Prison last week, and is awaiting deportation back to SA at the city’s International Detention Centre.However, Pendu’s return home after 10 years in a Thai prison is being held up by the department of home affairs – a delay that has deeply angered her family.In an early morning phone call on Tuesday, Henk Vanstaen, a Thai resident who assists South Africans jailed in the kingdom, said all that was required for Pendu’s deportation was for home affairs to provide verification to the SA embassy in Thailand that Pendu was a South African citizen.“She is officially free, after serving 10 years in a Thai jail when she was simply a victim of human trafficking.“Now they are punishing her even longer,” a frustrated Vanstaen said.“All they have to do is confirm her existence.“Her family are desperate to find out what is happening, but are getting no answers.”Funding for Pendu’s plane ticket back to SA has been procured through donations from Vanstaen’s circle of friends.Vanstaen has been mandated by Pendu’s family to speak on their behalf.E-mail correspondence between Vanstaen and the SA embassy states it is still awaiting confirmation from home affairs on Pendu’s particulars.Pendu, who was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for drug smuggling, was one of the beneficiaries of an amnesty granted by Thai king Maha Vajiralongkorn in May.The sentence of Makhanda drug mule Nolubabalo Nobanda was also reduced.Contacted for comment on Tuesday, home affairs spokesperson David Hlabane questioned whether the matter was not one for the department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco).Hlabane asked for a passport or identification number for Pendu.While this was not possible, a birth certificate number was provided to Hlabane.Shortly before midday, Hlabane responded via e-mail that he was awaiting feedback from his personnel.“Please note that it may be difficult though to have a response today, as checks may need to be done if it’s a matter within our competence as home affairs,” he said.No further correspondence had been received at the time of writing.In October 2008, Pendu was caught with 2kg of heroin strapped to her body at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.At the age of 23, the naive township woman had accepted an offer to drive ambulances in Bangkok.According to Pendu’s account to journalist Hazel Friedman, to pay back the cost of her plane ticket, syndicate members told her she had to smuggle the heroin to China.Because she was unable to swallow condoms filled with the drugs, they were strapped to her body.The Thai authorities were tipped off to her presence at the airport and she was arrested while other smugglers were able to slip through unnoticed.The South African woman who recruited her in Thabong was never arrested.Vanstaen and others have campaigned for years, to no avail, for SA to adopt prisoner transfer agreements so that citizens jailed abroad can serve sentences in SA.