Feroz Khan called us ‘tsotsi police’ at R286m Joburg cocaine bust, cop tells commission

Criminal infiltration fears

A warrant officer has conceded to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that he was “clueless” when it came to dealing with a R286-million cocaine interception in Johannesburg.

His testimony adds to worrying statements and incidents in how police officers are essentially bungling big drug cases.

A policeman, who previously faced criminal charges over a R286-million cocaine interception, has recalled how “all hell broke loose” when Crime Intelligence officer Feroz Khan arrived at the scene and gave instructions.

“I was not even allowed to move and talk to my colleagues, not even go to the toilet; I was escorted,” Warrant Officer Marumo Magane, reading from a statement, testified before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday, 12 May 2026.

He is a Crime Information Management and Analysis Centre commander at the Zonkizizwe police station in Gauteng.

The Madlanga Commission’s proceedings on Tuesday focused on a cocaine consignment weighing 715.86kg and worth around R286-million that was intercepted on 9 July 2021 in Aeroton, an industrial area in Johannesburg.

‘I’m innocent’

Magane was among four suspects arrested at the time of the drug bust, where he was the first police officer at the scene.

Daily Maverick has reported that the case against the four was subsequently withdrawn in court, but that the charges might be reinstated.

During Tuesday’s Madlanga Commission proceedings, it emerged that Magane was not involved in investigative work, was not adept at handling crime scenes, but took a hands-on approach when dealing with the high-value cocaine consignment in Aeroton.

He had also not thought that dealing with transnational traffickers’ cocaine was dangerous, and when acknowledging this, said: “That’s why we [police officers] need a refresher course.”

The Madlanga Commission heard that these factors created the impression that Magane was up to something underhanded when dealing with the cocaine.

Throughout the proceedings, though, he made various similar comments, including that he was “just doing this innocently”.

‘Totsi police’

Magane mentioned several other police officers who had been at the Aeroton interception, including Khan.

“While busy with the scene, a certain Indian male, who was later known to me as General Khan of Crime Intelligence, arrived with his crew,” Magane said, while reading from a statement.

Khan apparently made Magane sit in the bakkie in which he (Magane) drove to the scene.

“I did as instructed, and he, General Khan, started calling us tsotsi police and said he was going to teach us a lesson,” Magane said.

Other officers then interviewed Magane to determine how he had come to know about the cocaine interception scene.

He was subsequently arrested and became a suspect in the court case that was later withdrawn.

Read more: Crime Intelligence’s Feroz Khan accused of false undercover claim to free businessman

Khan, meanwhile, also faced internal disciplinary procedures over his actions at the Aeroton interception, and was cleared.

He and Gauteng Hawks head Ebrahim Kadwa, who had also been at the Areoton scene, were arrested a few days ago in an unrelated illicit precious metals case.

They are expected back in court in Kempton Park in July.

Brazil to Durban

During Tuesday’s Madlanga Commission proceedings, Magane detailed how he came to be at the July 2021 Aeroton cocaine interception.

His overall version of events did not go down well with the commission’s evidence leaders.

The other three people who had been arrested in this saga were: Warrant Officer Steve Pakula, an Organised Crime Unit member, Samuel Mashaba, who was involved in traffic services and the acting deputy director of Gauteng’s community safety department and businessman Tumelo Nku.

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Magane testified on Tuesday that after 6am on 9 July 2021, Mashaba contacted him about a drug matter involving cocaine being moved from Durban Harbour to Johannesburg.

The cocaine was concealed among Scania truck parts that were in a shipping container that arrived in Durban from Brazil.

Nku, it appeared, had informed Mashaba about the consignment.

‘Clueless’ about contaminated crime scene

Magane said the truck with the cocaine was followed to Aeroton, where he and Mashaba had asked that the container in question be opened, whereupon bags began falling out of it.

Magane said these bags, which contained cocaine, were loaded on to the open bakkie he travelled in so that the consignment could be transported to a police station. (It was later pointed out that the fact he had a bakkie with enough space for piles of cocaine was strangely convenient.)

He and those around him had not been wearing gloves, and the cocaine bags had not been placed in evidence bags.

When it was put to Magane that the crime scene had been contaminated, he said: “I fully agree.”

Other police officers had arrived at the scene, where matters became tense.

Magane’s overall version to the commission was that he and Mashaba, based on Nku’s tip-off, intercepted the Aeroton cocaine, loaded it on the back of his open bakkie, and planned to take it to a police station.

This was despite Magane not being schooled in such policing operations.

‘Everything went wrong’

Madlanga Commission chair Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga put it to Magane that he was “clueless” about what to do at the scene, and Magane admitted: “That’s correct, Commissioner.”

Some time was spent during Tuesday’s proceedings going through how to properly handle a crime scene.

Madlanga later told Magane, “We were humouring you in taking you through several parts of this national instruction on crime scene management.”

Referring to the Aeroton scene, Madlanga said: “Everything that could have gone wrong actually did go wrong.”

Magane said he accepted this “with both hands”.

Madlanga told Magane that it was clear he would not have been able to follow crime scene management instructions because “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that you could have complied with them because you knew nothing about them”.

‘Ulterior motives’ versus ‘ignorance’

Evidence leader Sesi Baloyi SC also put it to Magane that he had “absolutely no experience” in drug busts and was ignorant of national instructions on how to deal with crime scenes.

She said he had either been ignorant or deliberate when contaminating the crime scene.

Magane responded that he had acted ignorantly, not deliberately.

Baloyi persisted, later telling him it appeared he and Mashaba had no good intentions in dealing with the cocaine.

“In fact,” she suggested, “you have ulterior motives”.

Baloyi added: “I am putting to you […] there was never an intention for this loot, at least not all of it, to be properly accounted for.”

Magane hit back, saying: “I had no intention of stealing the drugs or taking them elsewhere.”

R55m drug stash missing from laboratory

On Monday, the Madlanga Commission heard testimony on the Aeroton cocaine from Hawks officer Colonel Francois Steyn.

Read more

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Steyn said that three years after the interception, it emerged that R55-million worth of the consignment was missing from a forensic science laboratory where the cocaine was being stored.

Last week, the Madlanga Commission focused on a R200-million cocaine consignment that had been stolen from the Hawks building in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, in June 2021, in what is suspected to have been an inside job.

What next

A new witness is expected to testify before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on 13 May 2026 about drug interceptions and policing.

DM