Madlanga Commission cocaine theft hearings continued this week, with testimony detailing how 541kg of cocaine valued at R200 million vanished from the Hawks’ Port Shepstone office in KwaZulu-Natal. The drugs had been seized at the Isipingo Depot in Durban in June 2021 and were stolen five months later from a building the commission heard was already on its eighth break-in.
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Madlanga Commission cocaine theft: how the bust became a heist
The Port Shepstone Hawks office had no working alarm and no private security contract at the time of the theft, the commission was told. A Hawks officer testified that the investigation was “intentionally bungled”. A new witness applied on 8 May 2026 to give evidence in closed session, citing safety concerns. The cocaine, the commission heard, was never supposed to be stored at Hawks offices in the first place.
Source: Eyewitness News, Daily Maverick
