SAPS’s National Intervention Unit officer, Warrant Officer Steve Phakula, testifies about the handling of a crime scene during the 2021 drug bust in Aeroton.
Image: Independent Newspapers
"Major General (Feroz) Khan asked me who the drugs belonged to and I told him that people say they belong to him and he laughed."
SAPS’s National Intervention Unit officer, Warrant Officer Steve Phakula, gave this testimony when he took the stand before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday.
His testimony implicated Khan, a senior Crime Intelligence officer, who was arrested over the weekend, along with Gauteng Crime Intelligence head Ebrahim Kadwa and Durban businessman Tariq Downes, for allegedly dealing in precious metals. They were released on R20,000 bail each.
Phakula testified following allegations that he contaminated the crime scene, where 750kg of cocaine bricks worth an estimated R300 million were seized in July 2021 in Aeroton, south of Johannesburg.
The drug syndicate concealed drugs in trucks transporting legitimate cargo to Scania South Africa in Aeroton.
He said Khan was among the officers who arrived at the scene and told him to “step back” from managing it.
Phakula claimed Warrant Officer Marumo Magane, the commander of the Crime Information Management and Analysis Centre at SAPS Zonkizwe police station, had called him to manage the scene, which he described as chaotic on arrival.
Magane confirmed during his testimony on Tuesday that he called Phakula after receiving a call from Gauteng traffic officer Samuel Mashaba about a potential drug bust.
Mashaba had received a tip-off from his informer, Tumelo Nku, regarding drugs smuggled in a truck from the Durban Harbour to Johannesburg.
According to Phakula, the bags containing cocaine bricks were already loaded onto Magane’s bakkie when he arrived. He testified that police from Booysens police station later arrested him, along with Mashaba, Magane, and Nku.
The Booysens officers were dispatched to the scene after a 10111 call from Scania South Africa employees in Aeroton reported that bogus police were hijacking a truck.
He testified that after their arrest, they appeared before the Booysens Magistrate's Court on July 12, 2021, charged with drug trafficking.
While they waited for their case to be called on the court's roll, their attorney, Mr Venter, informed them that Phakula would be released. This occurred because the senior public prosecutor requested and received a statement from Phakula's supervisor, Colonel Siphungu, which confirmed Phakula's version.
"Our case was called at around 15:00, and to my surprise, the attorney requested to address the court and placed on record that while at lunch, the head of Gauteng DPCI, Major Kadwa, together with Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Advocate Mlotshwa, had a meeting with senior public prosecutor Mr Thusi and the decision to release me was overturned," he said.
He was subsequently remanded in custody and suspended without pay.
Phakula told the commission that after his release on bail, Khan suggested meeting with him and during their encounter, Khan appeared to sympathise with him.
"Major General Khan asked me who the drugs belonged to, and I told him that people say they belong to him and he laughed," he said.
Phakula said he asked Khan if he could submit a statement, as there was a disciplinary hearing against him for the same case.
"He promised he would draft it and give it to me before my hearing, which was on Friday, September 18, 2021. We parted ways, and I promised I will avail the informer (Nku) to him for an interview. He never submitted his statement as per his promise," he said.
Khan allegedly wanted to know the origin of the information about a truck transporting drugs from Durban, and Phakula offered to make Nku available to answer that question.
He told the commission that the allegations that the drugs belonged to Khan stemmed from corridor talk among the police.
Phakula said Khan initially proposed meeting with Kadwa, but Phakula told him he was not comfortable meeting both of them.
He told the commission that Khan said they were not interested in him, but were after his supervisor, Colonel Siphungu.
Phakula claimed he told Khan that Siphungu knew nothing about the drug bust in Aeroton, and that he was the one who had informed Siphungu about it.
During his testimony, he conceded to mishandling the seals on the exhibits.
Colonel Francois Steyn, Gauteng Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) provincial coordinator for narcotics cases, testified on Monday that some bags of cocaine arrived at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory with tears.
Steyn said part of the cocaine, worth about R55 million, went missing while in police custody.
Phakula's testimony is under way.
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za