Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa, the senior Hawks officer, who recommended storing the 541kg cocaine seizure at the Port Shepstone office where it would later be stolen, told the Madlanga Commission yesterday that there is ‘credible evidence’ identifying the person responsible.

The cocaine was seized at the CHC container depot in Isipingo, KZN, in June 2021 and transported to the Hawks’ office in Port Shepstone, where thieves broke in that November, reports News24.

When investigators arrived on that Monday morning, they found the walk-in safe with grind marks on the door, suggesting the perpetrators had cut their way through using an angle grinder.

Nyuswa told the commission he was sceptical that the grind marks told the full story.

The safe operator had told Nyuswa the safe could not be breached without a key. That person has since died. As far as Nyuswa knew, investigators never obtained an expert report on whether the grind marks could have actually breached the safe.

When asked directly whether he suspected that someone had opened the safe first and staged the break-in afterwards, he stopped short of giving a direct answer.

According to Nyuswa, the only person who held both sets of keys to the safe at the time of the theft was Major General Lesetja Senona, the head of the KZN Hawks, with the usual procedure being that at least one set would remain with the exhibit clerk.

‘I should not have suggested Port Shepstone. Once Senona took both keys, this gave me further assurance that the exhibit would be safe in the storeroom because the provincial person would be the only person with the keys.’

Previous testimony claimed a 2017 standing order by a former KZN Hawks head had explicitly prohibited the use of the office for storing exhibits due to the security risks.

Nyuswa said an application to upgrade the building’s security had stalled because Hawks head office said there was no money. He acknowledged awareness of those concerns but distinguished the breaches and the safety of the safe itself, according to News24.

The breaches there were not directed at the safe, they were directed at the offices.

Safes are in a very private space. Only members of the Hawks and employees will know where the safes are. The cocaine reached Port Shepstone after Lieutenant Colonel Gavin Jacob, the Hawks commander who led the initial bust, instructed his team to move the exhibits from Isipingo police station due to a lack of storage.

The clerk in charge of the exhibit register at Isipingo has consistently maintained that Jacob never raised the issue of storage space and that space was available.

The commission also established that Nyuswa was not subjected to a polygraph examination as part of the theft investigation, despite other Hawks members being tested under orders from Senona.

Nyuswa said he only learned of this during his commission testimony and remained willing to take the test.

Full News24 report