Suspended Hawks KZN Provincial Commander Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa and other senior officers have denied any role in the November 2021 theft of 541kg of cocaine valued at R200 million from the Hawks’ Port Shepstone storage facility, testimony before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has revealed. The denials come as 49-year-old Lucas Legabe, the first person arrested in connection with the alleged theft, prepares for a formal bail application in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court on 8 September 2026.
The cocaine was seized on 22 June 2021 at the CHC container depot in Isipingo, Durban, after Hawks investigators were called to inspect a shipping container initially suspected of holding 27kg of drugs, according to IOL. Brigadier Nyuswa instructed that the consignment be transported to the Hawks’ Port Shepstone offices for storage, roughly 100km away, after Isipingo Police Station indicated it lacked capacity.
The safe at Port Shepstone was breached using a grinder during a burglary in November 2021, and the entire consignment disappeared. Major General Lesetja Senona, KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head, held the keys to the strong room where the drugs were kept, according to SABC News reporting on commission testimony.
Testifying before the Madlanga Commission on 17 June 2026, Nyuswa distanced himself from the theft and suggested the break-in may have been staged. “I had no involvement in the Port Shepstone theft,” Nyuswa told the commission, adding that credible evidence existed identifying the person behind the theft and that he had no association with that individual.
Colonel Gavin Jacob, commander of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit in Durban, told the commission on 3 June 2026 that he believed DPCI members had conspired with criminal elements. “I do believe that DPCI members have conspired with criminal elements to carry out this crime,” Jacob said, according to IOL. He denied being part of the decision to store the drugs at Port Shepstone and stated he had passed a polygraph test, though polygraph results administered to KZN Hawks officers were later discarded after the examiner made serious errors.
Lieutenant-Colonel Kwazikwakhe Sibiya of the Durban Hawks Serious Organised Crime Unit, who was part of the team at Isipingo on the day of the seizure, also denied involvement. “I was not part of any scheme, nor did I engage in any process designed to make the exhibits vulnerable to theft,” Sibiya told the commission, according to SABC News. Sibiya stated he was at the SAPS Paarl Academy in the Western Cape on a training course on the day of the break-in.
Legabe was arrested by the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit on 7 August 2026, according to IOL. He appeared in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on 11 August 2026 before being transferred to KwaZulu-Natal, where he made his first appearance in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court on 18 August 2026 and was remanded in custody. Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale told IOL that further arrests have not been ruled out.
The case has raised serious questions about evidence handling protocols within the Hawks, particularly the decision to store one of KZN’s largest cocaine seizures at a facility without adequate security rather than at nearer police stations such as Maydon Wharf, Brighton Beach, or Durban Central. The Madlanga Commission continues to hear evidence in Pretoria, and Legabe’s bail application on 8 September is expected to shed further light on the prosecution’s case.
What remains unknown is whether additional arrests will follow Legabe’s court appearance and whether the commission’s findings will lead to criminal charges against any of the senior Hawks officials who testified. Cape Flats News journalist Ziyaad Davids will next check in on developments following the 8 September bail hearing.