MADLANGA COMMISSION: Police officer admits to ‘bearing some responsibility’ in R200m cocaine theft scandal

Colonel Gavin Jacob has insisted he was not involved in any criminality relating to a R200m cocaine consignment stolen from a Hawks building in KwaZulu-Natal. But he says he could have acted differently in dealing with the matter and will shoulder some blame.

Proceedings became heated at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday, 4 June, with Colonel Gavin Jacob eventually conceding that he would “bear some responsibility” for cocaine worth R200-million that was stolen from a Hawks building.

Jacob, attached to the Hawks and the commander of Durban’s Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit, was testifying before the commission for a second consecutive day.

He accepted partial responsibility for the surrounding fallout but vehemently denied any involvement in the theft itself. “I’ll shoulder some of the blame,” he admitted, conceding he would handle the saga differently in hindsight, but maintained he was “in no manner or form” behind the heist.

The 541kg of cocaine was intercepted at a depot in Isipingo in June 2021, and in November, it was stolen from a poorly secured Hawks facility in Port Shepstone, to where it had been moved.

This theft, widely believed to be an inside job, has been the focus of the Madlanga Commission this week.

The commission heard that Jacob — despite being on official leave — initially dealt with the cocaine at the depot in Isipingo in June 2021 alongside Warrant Officer Livingstone Mpangase.

In his affidavit, Jacob said he decided to move the cocaine from that scene because of factors including the weather and space, and this ultimately led to the consignment being taken to the building in Port Shepstone.

He explained that the two police stations typically used for emergency storage — Durban Central and Brighton Beach — were already packed with evidence from two previous drug busts. The police Forensic Science Laboratory “also indicated that they did not have space”.

He called a senior colleague, Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa, and told him “that I had exhausted all avenues and that he should secure a storage location for the drugs”.

Jacob said Nyuswa called him back and said he had discussed the matter with the now suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head, Lesetja Senona, who directed that the cocaine be stored at the Port Shepstone building.

But during Thursday’s commission proceedings, it was put to Jacob that he had not even tried to find out if he could store the consignment elsewhere — that he had simply assumed he could not.

Jacob insisted that, based on previous interactions with officers at other police stations