Wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, Sheryl, should not be granted bail because she is a flight risk, the State argued in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday.

It was "overwhelmingly probable" that she was in cahoots with a Nigerian man to use two women as drug mules, the State argues in papers filed with the court opposing bail.

Cwele, accused of drug trafficking, was also likely to interfere with the investigation or trial.

It had a strong case against her and intended calling five witnesses, including a Brazilian federal police agent.

According to the papers, Cwele had been living apart from her husband since 2005 and had accused him of extra-marital relationships.

Cwele's bail application would be heard on Friday. The trial was likely to begin in October.

Cwele and Frank Nabolisa, a Nigerian arrested last month, face three charges. These are: dealing or conspiring to deal in drugs; procuring a woman called Charmaine Moss to collect drugs in Turkey; and procuring another woman, Tessa Beetge, to smuggle nine kilograms of cocaine from South America.

Brazilian police arrested Beetge in Sao Paulo on June 13, 2008 with drugs worth about R3-million. They found 9,2 kg of cocaine concealed in her baggage. She is currently serving an eight-year jail sentence in Sao Paulo for drug trafficking.

Moss allegedly pulled out before she was to leave the country.

The State argues that Cwele's travels overseas were suspicious and she had not made full disclosures about her passports.

In the State's papers, investigating officer Superintendent Izak Ludick says that Cwele does not deserve bail because Beegte's parents had received threatening calls after the drug trafficking story broke.

"Tessa's parents (Gert and Marie Swanepoel) allege that after the story was published, they received threatening telephone calls."

The calls were made to ensure that they did not say anything incriminatory about Cwele, Ludick says.

Were Cwele to be released it would raise "serious concerns" that she was connected and untouchable.

In her bail application papers filed on Tuesday, Cwele argues that she did not knowingly get involved in drug trafficking, saying that she had been asked by Nabolisa to recruit two white people to work for what he claimed was his construction company. She says that she had helped Beetge and Moss with money because she knew them.

The State says that Cwele had failed to explain why she sent Beetge text messages promising her R25 000. The State was in possession of copies of emails between Cwele and Beetge and transcripts of intercepted cellphone calls and text messages.

It questioned why Cwele, in her application, failed to explain why she had Beetge do certain things prior to her departure. These included taking photographs of Beetge wearing the clothes she was to travel in, and that her luggage would be collected from her a day before and returned immediately prior to her flight.

Meanwhile, Cwele's future as director of health and community safety for the Hibiscus municipality was in question. The municipality's Simon Soboyisa said that a decision on whether to suspend Cwele would be made on Friday.