The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry will continue to hear testimony on the police drug bust and disappearance of exhibits in police custody.
Image: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
Hawks Lieutenant-Colonel Nkoana Joseph Sebola is expected to take the stand before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday to continue testifying on the 2021 Aeroton drug bust and the handling of the crime scene.
Police had confiscated 750kg of cocaine bricks worth an estimated R300 million at Aeroton, where a truck had arrived to deliver legitimate cargo from Durban Harbour to Scania South Africa.
The commission is expected to question Sebola about his role in managing the crime scene when he arrived, including the arrest of the SAPS officers who were first on site.
SAPS National Intervention Unit officer Warrant Officer Steve Phakula, who testified on Wednesday, was among the officers arrested by the Hawks in connection with drug trafficking.
Warrant Officer Marumo Magane, commander of the Crime Information Management and Analysis Centre at SAPS Zonkizwe police station, who was also arrested, said he called Phakula to the scene to assist in managing it.
Magane testified that he had been contacted by Gauteng traffic officer Samuel Mashaba, who received a tip-off from informant Tumelo Nku about a Yellow Jersey Logistics truck transporting drugs from Durban Harbour to Johannesburg.
Both Nku and Mashaba were also arrested and later released on bail.
During his testimony on Wednesday, Phakula confirmed officers from Booysens Police Station later arrested him, along with Mashaba, Magane, and Nku after Scania South Africa employees in Aeroton made a 10111 call reporting a bogus police hijacking of a truck.
Phakula said the group appeared before Booysens Magistrate’s Court on 12 July 2021, charged with drug trafficking.
He also conceded that he had lied about touching the exhibits and had omitted that from his statement.