The Madlanga commission is set to focus on the Port Shepstone drug bust and the subsequent disappearance of seized narcotics, with KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major General Lesetja Senona scheduled to testify on 5 June.
The case stems from a June 2021 drug bust in Durban in which 541kg of cocaine, with a street value of about R200 million, was seized. The cocaine later disappeared from a walk-in safe at the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime offices in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal.
Evidence presented before the commission has suggested that the theft had been an inside job rather than the result of a security lapse.
Evidence leader Mahlape Sello told the commission that Senona had initially been subpoenaed to appear on 18 May. After discussions between evidence leaders and Senona’s legal representatives, his testimony had been postponed.
“In preparing for this week and the witnesses we have, we prepared a schedule. And the result of that schedule is that General Senona is anticipated to take the stand only on 5 June. But because he is under subpoena and the order of the Chair to be present today, he has availed himself. He appears under our request that you stand him down until 5 June,” Sello said.
The commission has heard that Senona had personally recommended moving the cocaine from the Port Shepstone office. At least two witnesses have linked him to serious security failures at the facility, which allegedly lacked basic alarm systems and CCTV surveillance.
During his first appearance in January, Senona said KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi had forcibly removed him from his office.
Mkhwanazi responded at the commission and said Senona had breached security protocols after entering the office with an unknown person after hours on a weekend. Mkwanazi said security personnel had stopped him as he attempted to leave with sensitive state documents and a government-issued laptop.
The commission also heard testimony from Warrant Officer Karl Sander, who served under Senona’s command structure and was appointed to KwaZulu-Natal Hawks provincial support services, where he was responsible for overseeing the weapons armoury.
Sander told the commission he was made a suspect in the Port Sheptstone matter even though he had not been at the scene.
“I was on leave. [When] I came back to work, it was all over social media that the stuff had been stolen. Our senior managers came into the office one day and said we were all suspects. Obviously I didn’t agree with that and we were sent to [do a ] polygraph,” he said.
Sanders said he had never been at the Port Shepstone office and had been involved only in several major narcotics investigations, among them:
- A February 2020 case involving about 500kg of methaqualone.
- A Durban cocaine seizure in August 2020.
- A February 2021 case involving 495 packages of methamphetamine.
- A June 2021 seizure of about 500kg of cocaine.
- A July 2021 seizure of about 1 000kg of cocaine.
- A November 2022 seizure involving 60kg of cocaine.
- A Durban Central case in October 2023 involving frozen chicken containers allegedly concealing 228kg of cocaine.
Senona removed Sander from his post in the Hawks’ drug division by. The warrant officer testified on Monday about multiple drug busts in KZN and said he had been redeployed without explanation.
He told the commission that he had subsequently been informed about allegations of corruption linked to a serious organised crime investigation. He said an email sent to national headquarters had accused him of facilitating the supply of narcotics to syndicates operating in Durban’s Florida Road nightclub district.
Sander testified that he later learnt unofficially that a disciplinary inquiry had been opened against him at the Port Shepstone Hawks office and closed within four days.
He said that, to this day, he has not been informed of the specific allegations against him and that he wanted his name cleared.
Madlanga commission to focus on Port Shepstone cocaine theft as Hawks boss Senona prepares to testify
