South Africa’s Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has heard more explosive evidence about how a R200-million cocaine consignment vanished from a Hawks building in KwaZulu-Natal, with testimony pointing to years of ignored security weaknesses and the real possibility that the theft was an inside job. The latest evidence, presented on 6 May 2026, has again raised hard questions about how a critical police facility could be left so exposed for so long.
At the centre of the hearing was Major General Hendrik Flynn, the head of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation component, who continued his testimony on Wednesday. Flynn set out a troubling picture: the Hawks offices in Port Shepstone had already been broken into repeatedly over roughly a decade before the cocaine was stolen in November 2021.
That history matters. It suggests police were not dealing with a once-off lapse, but a building with a long and documented record of vulnerability. The commission is probing allegations that a powerful drug cartel has infiltrated parts of South Africa’s criminal justice system, and Flynn’s evidence fits squarely into that wider concern.
Flynn told the inquiry that the drugs had first been intercepted at an Isipingo depot in June 2021 before later disappearing from the Port Shepstone premises. He said the building had no private security at the time because an existing contract had expired, and there was also no working alarm system in place. In a country where organised crime often exploits every gap in the chain, that is a devastating combination.
He went further, reading from a previously confidential police report that listed multiple previous break-ins at the Port Shepstone site. The incidents were recorded on 27 December 2011, 8 June 2014, 8 December 2018, 20 January 2020, 15 March 2020, 15 January 2021 and 11 October 2021. The exact circumstances of each incident were not fully explained, but the pattern itself was clear enough: this was a building that had been targeted again and again.
Flynn said a prior inspection of the Hawks offices revealed there were no CCTV cameras installed in or around the premises. He also noted the absence of an early warning system in the office area and no beam sensor on the outside of the accommodation block. For a site holding high-value crime exhibits, that kind of basic failure is difficult to defend.
The commission has already heard that the cocaine should have been stored at a Forensic Science Laboratory, not at the Port Shepstone building. Flynn doubled down on that view, saying the decision to keep such a large consignment in a weakly protected strong room was not only poor judgment, but “extremely reckless and irresponsible”.
He explained that any secure evidence facility should rely on multiple layers of defence. First the perimeter must be hardened, then the building itself, and only then the vault or safe room where the exhibits are kept. Without those layers, he said, it becomes far too easy for criminals to penetrate the premises and remove whatever is inside.
As we reported earlier, the commission is not only looking at the theft itself, but the broader question of how organised trafficking networks manage to stay ahead of law enforcement. Flynn said the fight against transnational drug crime requires coordinated, intelligence-driven action across multiple agencies and better use of technology. He warned that investigations are often undermined by the secretive nature of the trade and, crucially, by the involvement of officials who are supposed to stop it.
Madlanga Commission hears how Port Shepstone cocaine theft exposed major Hawks security failures
Flynn also referred to another internal police document that described the theft as a “national embarrassment”. The paper, which appeared to carry the name of Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili and former Hawks boss Godfrey Lebeya, said the incident had embarrassed the Hawks and the country, while also damaging public trust in the elite crime-fighting unit.
The same document recommended urgent security improvements at the Port Shepstone offices, including infrared sensors, better perimeter lighting and the use of a contracted armed response company. It also questioned what had led officers to keep the cocaine there in the first place, given the obvious gaps in protection. Flynn’s own evidence echoed that sentiment almost point for point.
The hearing has also sharpened focus on senior command decisions. KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major General Lesetja Senona testified earlier that someone familiar with the Port Shepstone premises must have been involved in the burglary. On Wednesday, commission chair Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga asked Flynn whether Senona should have taken a polygraph test in relation to the matter. Flynn said he believed that would have been appropriate because Senona had played an active role in the events surrounding the theft.
Senona had been expected back before the commission on 8 May 2026, but that appearance has now been moved to 1 June. Flynn, meanwhile, wrapped up his evidence on Wednesday, but not before the commission heard another reminder of just how active the drug trade remains in KwaZulu-Natal.
On the very day Flynn was testifying, police in Durban intercepted about R13-million worth of cocaine hidden in the air-conditioning compartment of a bus at Durban Harbour. According to SAPS, the bus had been shipped from a South American country and was destined for Gauteng. No arrests were made.
That seizure underlined the scale of the challenge facing police in the province. While the commission is focused on a stolen consignment from 2021, the Durban bust shows the pipeline is still being used and traffickers are still moving product through South African ports and transport routes.
The commission is due to hear from a new witness on Thursday, 7 May 2026, and further testimony is expected to delve deeper into the Port Shepstone investigation. For now, Flynn’s evidence has made one thing plain: the loss of the R200-million cocaine consignment was not just a security failure, but a serious blow to a case already tangled in questions about inside access, weak controls and possible corruption.