Former Hawks boss Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya has told the Madlanga commission of inquiry he can’t recall whether he was told where cocaine worth R200m seized at the Durban harbour and later stolen was stored.
Lebeya was making his second appearance at the commission, where evidence leader advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube asked him about the 2021 drug bust in which 541kg of cocaine with a R200m street value was stored at a Hawks office in Port Shepstone after it was seized.
It was revealed CCTV cameras and alarms were malfunctioning at the office and there was no 24-hour security.
The drugs were allegedly stored unlawfully, as they should have been kept in a police station’s evidence room or taken to a forensic laboratory.
The cocaine was later stolen.
During his first appearance before the commission last week, Lebeya said he became aware of where the drugs were stored only after they were stolen.
On Tuesday Segeels-Ncube confronted him with a statement from former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona. In the statement, Senona said he had told Lebeya where the drugs were stored.
Asked to comment on the apparent inconsistency between his testimony and Senona’s statement, Lebeya said he could not say Senona had lied.
“I cannot recall him [Senona] informing me where he had stored the drugs,” Lebeya said.
He said it was not the first time exhibits were stored at the facility.
Segeels-Ncube asked Lebeya what he did after he was told the drugs had been stolen. Lebeya said he initiated two investigations, a fact-finding case and a criminal investigation.
He said at no point did provincial officers request the fast-tracking of the drugs to be transferred to a lab.
The drugs have been a prominent part of the commission’s investigation, as it is believed the theft from the Hawks office was an inside job.
It has also emerged firearms stored at the facility had not been stolen, which suggested the suspects were only after the cocaine.
Sowetan
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