Hawks officer denies role in Port Shepstone cocaine disappearance at Madlanga commission

Lieutenant-Colonel Kwazikwakhe Sibiya told the Madlanga Commission on 5 June 2026 that he was not involved in the disappearance of a 541kg consignment of cocaine seized in June 2021 and later reported missing from the Hawks’ Port Shepstone office.

Who testified and what was at stake

Sibiya, attached to the Serious Organised Crime Investigation (SOCI) unit within the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) in Durban, denied the allegations when asked by the commission investigating the disappearance of drugs valued at over R200 million that went missing on 8 November 2021.

Account of the June 2021 seizure

The drugs had been seized on 22 June 2021 at the CHC container depot in Isipingo and placed in police custody. Sibiya said the seizure marked both his first drug bust and his first visit to a container depot. He confirmed he handled the bags, loaded them onto a police operational response services vehicle, followed the vehicle to Isipingo police station, and assisted in offloading and counting the drugs.

Role and experience

Sibiya told the commission he was a warrant officer temporarily assigned to the Economic Protected Resources (EPR) component within SOCI at the time of the seizure. He said large-scale narcotics investigations were not his “area of specialisation or primary function.” He added that he was promoted to captain and permanently transferred to SOCI in September 2021, and later reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel in December 2024.

Procedural lapses and chain of custody questions

Testimony to the commission set out a series of handling concerns: the cocaine was removed from its container, taken to Isipingo police station, and then transported more than 100km to the Port Shepstone office on the recommendation of KZN Hawks head Lesetja Senona. At Port Shepstone the drugs were stored in a walk-in safe in a building that, the commission heard, lacked an alarm system and surveillance cameras and had suffered at least seven break-ins between December 2011 and October 2021.

Sibiya acknowledged that national police guidelines for crime scene management were not followed. He said he had been acting under instructions from senior officers. Commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga challenged that defence, asking:

“So you just allow yourself to be used as a pawn whilst prescripts that you are aware of are being flouted?”

Madlanga pressed Sibiya on awareness of the procedural breaches:

“Your responses were in the affirmative. You cannot now suddenly want to suggest that you were not aware that the prescripts were being flouted.”

Affidavit similarities and other testimony

Commissioner Sesi Baloyi raised concerns about similarities between Sibiya’s affidavit and that of Colonel Gavin Jacob, suggesting the statements were closely aligned. Baloyi said:

“I sit here with an impression that you either copied his statement or you sat down and agreed to what you were going to put in your statements on this issue.”

Sibiya rejected the suggestion and said:

“We might have discussions about the very same issue, but it was not for the purposes of deposing an affidavit.”

Colonel Jacob also testified before the commission and acknowledged procedural lapses while defending parts of his conduct. Jacob said he attended the scene while on “vacation leave” and criticised the subsequent investigation into the cocaine theft:

“Now I’m being painted to the whole country as though I’m a liar. I’m fabricating things, and I take serious issue. There’s a whole lot of investigation that was done that is clearly swayed in a certain direction,”

he told the commission on 4 June.

Ongoing scrutiny

Five years after the seizure, the commission record shows no arrests had been made in connection with the disappearance. Testimony focused on the actions taken after the June 2021 seizure, decisions about where the drugs were stored, and whether crime scene procedures were followed.