By Palesa Matlala
- Suspended Hawks Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa told the Madlanga Commission he knows who stole R200-million worth of cocaine from a KwaZulu-Natal strongroom.
- Nyuswa testified that his superior, Lieutenant General Lesetja Senona, held both sets of keys to the safe where the cocaine was stored before it vanished.
A Hawks officer sat before a national commission of inquiry, said he knows who stole R200-million worth of cocaine, and then refused to say the name.
That was the moment Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa’s testimony stopped moving forward and started pointing sideways.
Nyuswa, the Hawks provincial commander for Serious Organised Crime Investigation in KwaZulu-Natal, spent Wednesday before the Madlanga Commission answering questions about the disappearance of 541kg of cocaine from a Hawks strongroom in Port Shepstone.
The drugs were seized in a 2021 bust. Months later, they were gone.
He is currently on precautionary suspension over how the cocaine was stored and how it went missing.
Nyuswa admitted he recommended the Port Shepstone office as the storage site. He admitted proper procedures were not followed. He apologised.
“Commissioners, I can’t change what has happened. The only thing I can say is that I am sorry to you, and I am sorry to the nation,” he said.
But he did not stop there.
Nyuswa told the commission he does not believe the safe was broken into the way investigators described. According to investigators, thieves used grinding equipment to cut through the door. Nyuswa said he doubts it.
“I was shocked that the safe had been breached, but more than that I was sceptical that it had been breached by grinding the door,” he said.
He suggested the damage to the safe may have been staged to look like a forced entry from outside.
Then he went further. He told commissioners that both the original and spare keys to the strongroom had been handed to then Hawks provincial head Lieutenant General Lesetja Senona. He said he believed the drugs were secure because of that.
When asked directly whether he knows who took the cocaine, Nyuswa said he does.
He would not say more.
“I can’t say the name, commissioners,” he said.
The commission noted his refusal and continued. It has the legal power under the Commissions Act to compel witnesses to answer, but did not do so.
The Madlanga Commission is investigating corruption and criminal networks inside law enforcement. It will hear more evidence about the missing cocaine in the weeks ahead.
Pictured above: Suspended Hawks Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa during his testimony before the Madlanga Commission.
Image source: A screenshot of the live broadcast
