Chief Provincial Inspector of Gauteng Traffic Police (GTP), Samuel Mashaba, has told the Madlanga Commission that the Aeroton drug bust was proceeding successfully until the arrival of senior police officers led by Major-General Feroz Khan, whom he accused of disrupting the operation and later orchestrating the arrest of those involved.

Appearing before the commission on Tuesday, Mashaba testified about the July 2021 operation in which authorities uncovered a 715kg cocaine consignment valued at an estimated R300 million.

He said the operation was launched after he received information from an alleged informer, Tumelo Nku, about a truck travelling from Durban to Johannesburg suspected of carrying drugs.

“On Thursday 8 July 2021 I received a tip-off from Mr Tumelo Nku … I then asked Mr Nku to first confirm the information before I could act on it,” Mashaba told the commission.

After verification the following morning, Mashaba said he mobilised law enforcement officials and moved to Yellow Jersey Logistics, where the truck was reportedly parked.

When company representatives raised concerns about breaking container seals at their depot, Mashaba said he proposed escorting the truck to its destination in Aeroton.

Upon arrival at Scania’s premises in Aeroton, south of Johannesburg, Mashaba said the container was opened in the presence of company officials and workers, where suspected drugs were discovered.

“At that point, we realised that the tip-off was indeed correct,” he said, adding that 23 bags of suspected drugs were secured.

He testified that the situation changed after additional police officers arrived on scene.

“There was a lot of commotion… we were viewed with suspicion,” Mashaba said.

He told the commission that he was later informed Major-General Khan was en route to the operation.

Mashaba alleged Khan’s arrival effectively derailed the bust.

“He was operating like a man with all the powers,” he said, claiming Khan blocked a K-9 search and contacted his employer about his employment status.

The operation ended with Mashaba and three others arrested by the Hawks.

They were accused of conducting an unauthorised drug bust, falsely identifying themselves as Hawks members and attempting to steal cocaine from the container.

They were charged with defeating the ends of justice after allegedly offloading cocaine onto a Nissan bakkie.

Mashaba said bail proceedings raised unanswered questions about the evidence, including how the drugs were weighed.

The magistrate later granted bail, noting the arrests appeared rushed and premature.

Mashaba said he was suspended shortly after his arrest and remains uncertain about the status of internal disciplinary proceedings.

“Our criminal case was provisionally withdrawn on 12 October 2022 and finally withdrawn by Adv. de Kock from the NDPP in January 2024,” he said.

He confirmed he has since returned to work and was later transferred to a Special Law Enforcement Unit in December 2025.

Proceedings were adjourned, with Mashaba set to return for cross-examination on Thursday.

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Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Lieutenant-Colonel Nkoana Sebola has maintained that he neither saw nor interacted with Gauteng Crime Intelligence (CI) head Major-General Feroz Khan during the 2021 Aeroton cocaine bust, despite multiple witnesses testifying since Monday that Khan was at the scene.

Questioning Sebola during the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday, commissioner Sesi Baloyi suggested the Hawks officer had deliberately omitted Khan from his account, saying the omission created an “uncomfortable impression”.

“His presence at the scene gives me the uncomfortable impression that you made a deliberate decision to keep General Khan’s name out of your mouth and out of your statement,” Baloyi said.

Resuming his testimony after lunch, Sebola told the commission that after arresting Warrant Officer Marumo Magane of the Crime Information Management and Analysis Centre, Warrant Officer Steve Phakula of the National Intervention Unit, Deputy Director Samuel Mashaba of Gauteng Traffic Police and informant Tumelo Nku for allegedly interfering in the cocaine bust, Gauteng Hawks head Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa contacted him.

According to Sebola, Kadwa asked him to visit Phakula in prison because Khan wanted investigators to hear something from him.

Sebola said he visited Phakula with two other warrant officers, during which Phakula allegedly claimed the drugs belonged to Khan.

“The only thing Phakula wanted to tell me was that he is working with General Khan and those are his drugs,” Sebola said.

He added that Phakula was unwilling to formalise the allegation in a statement.

The commission, however, challenged Sebola’s version, noting that several witnesses, including Phakula, had testified that Khan played an active role at the Aeroton warehouse.

Earlier on Thursday, Phakula testified that according to “corridor rumours”, the drugs belonged to Khan and that the CI boss laughed when he confronted him about it.

Sebola denied deliberately omitting Khan from his testimony, insisting none of the witnesses he interviewed identified Khan as someone they had dealt with during the operation.

“None of them, when I was interviewing them, indicated to me that this is the person that we were dealing with. I could not have ignored what happened because if I was aware that he once placed himself on the scene, I would have interviewed him one-on-one,” he said.

Baloyi said it was difficult to believe that an investigating officer would not have noticed Khan if he had indeed been active at the scene.

Evidence leader Advocate Thabang Pooe further pressed Sebola, pointing out that multiple statements placed Khan at the warehouse.

“It’s worth noting that just in the docket, at least five individuals, including Khan, place themselves at the scene, and some of these statements were taken in the same month of the incident,” she said.

Pooe also noted that Sebola failed to mention Khan’s presence while testifying at the CI boss’s disciplinary hearing.

“But in Major General Khan’s disciplinary hearing, you were called to testify and there, too, you don’t mention anything about Khan’s presence, and so it does beg the question whether the silence is deliberate given the many statements that mention Major General Khan’s presence,” she said.

Commissioner Sandile Khumalo echoed the concern.

“It leaves an uncomfortable feeling that when you came here, you knew that there is this statement because it was given to you by staying, and you were told by IPID that Khan was there. People say he was there, and you don’t mention that part,” he said.

The commission also heard evidence linking the Aeroton bust to the R200 million cocaine seizure in Isipingo, near Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, in June 2021.

Sebola testified that cellphone downloads from informant Tumelo Nku’s device revealed encrypted messages discussing fears that police could intercept the Aeroton shipment “like the one they did at Isipingo”.

According to Sebola, one message read: “Those containers are still there boss.”

He said Nku relayed concerns about the consignment to Mashaba, who allegedly reassured him that “they will be safe”.

Addressing the criminal case against the four accused linked to the bust, Sebola said several police officers later submitted statements supporting the defence, contributing to the collapse of the prosecution.

He said witnesses later became hostile, including Scania warehouse employee Jolene Wenzel, resulting in the matter being struck from the roll and referred to the National Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision.

Sebola said he was later promoted to lieutenant-colonel and transferred to Limpopo, which marked the end of his involvement in the matter.

Proceedings adjourned for the day, with Sebola expected to complete his testimony at a later date.

The commission is expected to hear Brown Mogotsi’s recusal application against chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson on Friday morning.

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SAPS National Intervention Unit (NIU) officer Warrant Officer Steve Phakula has alleged that Gauteng Crime Intelligence head Major-General Feroz Khan “laughed” when confronted with rumours that a massive cocaine shipment seized during the 2021 Aeroton drug bust belonged to him.

Appearing before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday, Phakula detailed his interactions with Khan following the drug bust.

“Major-General Khan asked me who the drugs belonged to and I told him that people say they belong to him and he laughed,” Phakula said.

The commission previously heard how 715kg of cocaine, worth an estimated R280 million, was seized during a raid at a Scania warehouse in Aeroton, south of Johannesburg.

It also heard that about 137kg later vanished and that the crime scene was severely contaminated, with the drugs transported on an open bakkie.

Phakula testified that Crime Information Management and Analysis Centre head Warrant Officer Marumo Magane had called him to the Aeroton scene after receiving information from Gauteng traffic Deputy Director Samuel Mashaba, whose informer, Tumelo Nku, had tipped police off about drugs being transported from Durban harbour to Johannesburg.

According to Phakula, the cocaine bricks had already been loaded onto Magane’s bakkie when he arrived. Booysens police officers later arrested him, Magane, Mashaba and Nku after Scania employees called 10111 and reported that bogus police officers were hijacking a truck.

Phakula said they later appeared in the Booysens Magistrate’s Court on drug trafficking charges, where he had initially expected to be released after prosecutors received a statement from his commander, Colonel Wiseman Siphungu, corroborating his version of events.

After being released on bail, Phakula said Khan requested a meeting.

According to Phakula, Khan sympathised with him and questioned why he had been arrested.

“I waited for him and then I saw him, Major-General Khan, driving in his greyish VW Golf 7. He sympathised with me and explained he still did not understand why I was arrested,” the warrant officer testified.

Phakula said Khan wanted information about how informer Nku became aware of the drug shipment moving from Durban harbour to Johannesburg.

He admitted that despite rumours linking Khan to the drugs, he nevertheless offered to arrange a meeting between Khan and the informer.

But commissioner Sesi Baloyi sharply questioned that decision, criticising Phakula’s apparent lack of concern.

“Why would you want to make the informer available to General Khan if in that same conversation you say to him, there’s talk that these drugs are yours? At the very least, it seems to me that you in fact would have been putting the informer’s life at risk,” she said.

Phakula conceded that he had exercised poor judgment.

He further testified that Khan indicated investigators were targeting his superior, Colonel Wiseman Siphungu, rather than him.

Phakula said he responded by telling Khan that Siphungu knew nothing about the operation and that he was the one who had informed him about it.

The commission was shown WhatsApp exchanges between Phakula and Khan arranging the September 2021 meeting.

In one message, Khan asked whether the warrant officer “would mind” if he brought Gauteng Hawks head Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa. Phakula replied that he would not be comfortable with that.

Phakula also testified that Khan promised to provide a statement to assist in his disciplinary hearing following his suspension from SAPS, but never did so.

Khan was arrested separately over the weekend alongside Kadwa and Durban businessman Tariq Downes on allegations linked to the possession of precious metals.

The trio appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court and were each released on R20,000 bail.

Phakula’s testimony also contradicted evidence presented on Tuesday by Warrant Officer Marumo Magane regarding the handling of the Aeroton crime scene.

While Magane denied there had ever been a plan to process the drugs at Alberton police station, Phakula insisted “there was always a plan” for the 715kg haul to be taken there.

He described the Aeroton scene as chaotic and said unfamiliar officers arrived and attempted to seize control of the operation.

Under questioning from evidence leader advocate Teboho Mosikili, Phakula conceded that the crime scene had not been managed in accordance with SAPS procedures.

He admitted handling exhibit seals improperly and acknowledged that contamination of the scene had been unlawful.

Proceedings adjourned for the day and are expected to continue on Thursday morning.

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