Madlanga: Five things to know about R200m drug theft and Feroz Khan’s sick note

Former Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya made his second appearance at the Madlanga commission on Tuesday where he was grilled over his decision not to subject KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona to a polygraph test after drugs worth R200m were stolen while under his watch.

An internal investigation had found that the facility where Senona had decided to store the drugs had security breaches. Senona had also suggested that the theft was an inside job.

Senona subjected every Hawks member involved in transporting the drugs from the scene where they were seized to the facility where they were stored, including cleaners, to polygraph tests, except himself.

Here are five things you need to know about Tuesday’s hearing:

• Lebeya told the commission he could not recall whether Senona had informed him that 541kg of cocaine, worth about R200m, had been stored at a Hawks office in Port Shepstone. This appeared to contradict Senona’s statement that he had told Lebeya where the drugs were being kept.
• Lebeya said after learning that the cocaine had been stolen from the Hawks offices, he had initiated both a fact-finding investigation and a criminal probe, as provincial officers had never asked for the drugs to be fast-tracked for transfer to a forensic laboratory.
• The commission also heard that the cocaine was stored at a facility where CCTV cameras and alarms were malfunctioning and there was no 24-hour security. Firearms kept at the same facility were not stolen, raising suspicions that the perpetrators specifically targeted the cocaine and supporting allegations that the theft may have been an inside job.
• The cross-examination of Lebeya was set aside temporarily to hear a postponement application from crime intelligence officer Maj-Gen Feroz Khan, who is alleged to have received kickbacks from a R280m National Treasury tender. Khan was supposed to have appeared before the commission, but his lawyer asked that this be postponed, as he has been admitted to hospital.
• A doctor’s affidavit read before the commission alleged that Khan’s sick note submitted to the SAPS was amended to move the end date of his sick leave from June 30 to June 27. Justice Madlanga said Khan will only be excused if, by Tuesday, September 8, he voluntarily undergoes an independent evaluation by a mutually agreed-on medical specialist, who must then submit a report to the commission by Tuesday, September 15

Sowetan