The missing 541 kg of cocaine, worth R200 million, was kept at the Hawks’ Port Shepstone office in 2021 despite a 2017 order from former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Jabulani Zikhali to not use that office and four others for exhibit storage because of security risks.
Image: FILE
The missing 541 kg of cocaine, worth R200 million, was kept at the Hawks’ Port Shepstone office in 2021 despite a 2017 order from former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Jabulani Zikhali to not use that office and four others for exhibit storage because of security risks.
This emerged during the testimony of retired Hawks member Lieutenant-Colonel Jakobus Prinsloo, who appeared before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday.
Prinsloo, the former unit commander at Port Shepstone, told the commission that the incumbent KZN Hawks head, Major-General Lesetja Senona and Provincial Commander for Serious Organised Crime at the Hawks Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa were aware of the 2017 order prohibiting the storing of exhibits at the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) or Hawks offices.
Burglars later stole the drugs from the premises after using a grinder to break into the strong room where the drugs were stored.
This week Major-General Hendrick Flynn, Component Head for Serious Organised Crime at the Hawks, testified that after the drugs seizure from Durban Harbour on June 21, 2021, an officer identified as Warrant Officer Mpangase checked the drugs into Isipingo Police Station the following day and checked them out the same day.
On Nyuswa's instruction, who consulted with Senona, the drugs were relocated from Isipingo to Port Shepstone, which is 100 km away, allegedly due to storage capacity issues. This was despite other police stations within a 20 km radius where the exhibits could have been kept.
Prinsloo told the commission that he could not understand his superiors' decision to move the exhibits to the DPCI Port Shepstone office given that the property had previously experienced at least seven break-ins.
He claimed that despite numerous pleas to his superiors to ensure proper security nothing was done.
"The office was particularly vulnerable and had been broken into a number of times. I can count no less than eight incidents," he said.
He cited, for example, the break-in at the storeroom next to the garage on December 27, 2011, another one on December 8, 2018, June 8, 2014 and 20 January 2020, as well as a break-in at the office.
Additionally, he said the office owed money to National Security and Fire, which sent a statement of account for R3,306.49 regarding monthly service on November 26, 2020. On December 14, 2020, they sent another statement reflecting R3,610 and advised that they would be removed from their system and stop rendering further services.
Prinsloo said: "On the night of January 14 2021 another break-in happened which was only discovered on January 15, 2021. A rock was used to break the window of the kitchen. However, criminals were prevented by the burglar bars from entering. I wrote a factual report to Nyuswa and informed him that the office alarm was not linked to a security company."
He recounted that on June 22, 2021, the office received a large quantity of drug exhibits for storage.
Prinsloo said: "At that time there was no security service. Nothing had changed. Security was neither upgraded nor enhanced. I found this particularly strange. Brigadier Nyuswa knew of the security challenges and I could not understand his decision or how drugs would be stored at the office."
Prinsloo said there was an attempted break-in in late October, before the drugs were stolen in November 2021.
He claimed that he reported the incident to Nyuswa and that "again, there was no attempt to approve the previous application or even enhance security given that there were now exhibits of high volume".
Prinsloo said: "The DPCI was totally unsuitable to store the exhibits received. There was no adequate security. In fact there was a decision taken in 2017 not to store exhibits at the five DPCI units. Brigadier Nyuswa was and is well aware of that decision, Major-General Senona would have also known this."
According to him, Zikhali issued the decision to stop storing exhibits at DPCI offices.
Prinsloo's testimony is under way.