Lieutenant Colonel Nkoana Joseph Sebola of the Hawks testifies at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry in Pretoria on 14 May 14 2026. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)
“If those containers r gone me and you are in big shit.”
According to Lieutenant Colonel Nkoana Joseph Sebola of the Hawks, the above is among the messages sent between people allegedly linked to a R286-million cocaine consignment intercepted in Johannesburg a few years ago.
Sebola was testifying before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday, 14 May 2026.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_608957_930118.jpg "Lieutenant Colonel Nkoana Joseph Sebola testified about the messages that were sent between people believed to have been linked to the R286-million cocaine shipment that was intercepted in Johannesburg. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)")
He said people allegedly connected to the cocaine had exchanged messages, some via an encrypted platform.
Throughout the week, the Madlanga Commission has focused on a cocaine consignment weighing 715.86kg and worth about R286-million that was intercepted on 9 July 2021 in Aeroton, a Johannesburg industrial area.
‘Heavy threats’
Four suspects were initially arrested over the interception, but the court case against them was later withdrawn.
The four are: Warrant Officer Marumo Magane of the Zonkizizwe police station in Gauteng; Warrant Officer Steve Phakula, a National Intervention 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.
Daily Maverick has reported that the case against them may still be reinstated.
Criminal infiltration fears
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is investigating allegations that a drug cartel has infiltrated South Africa’s criminal justice sector, politics and private security.
Lieutenant Colonel Nkoana Sebola’s testimony on Thursday, 14 May 2026, adds to evidence connecting local figures to transnational drug traffickers.
During Thursday’s Madlanga Commission proceedings, Sebola referred to some messages that Nku allegedly received from someone using the alias “Alpha”.
Some of the messages were screened at the hearing.
On the day of the cocaine interception, it appeared that Alpha contacted Nku, saying: “If those containers r gone me and you are in big shit.”
A response to this said: “Those containers are [s]till there boss.”
Another message that appears to have been sent to Nku said: “I am getting heavy threats.”
‘Suspicious communication’
Sebola alleged that Nku had screengrabbed those messages and sent them to an associate or associates “to show [that] those on the ground are worried”.
Sebola testified about other issues he picked up on Nku’s cellphone records.
“I found suspicious communication which says the police must not intercept this consignment like the one they did in Isipingo on 2021-06-22, and Tumelo will then raise the same concern with Mashaba, who will […] promise that they will be safe,” Sebola said.
The Isipingo reference related to a R200-million cocaine consignment that was intercepted at a depot in the KwaZulu-Natal town in June 2021, a month before the controversial Aeroton incident. (Months later, in November 2021, the Isipingo cocaine consignment was stolen from the poorly secured Hawks building in Port Shepstone in what is widely suspected to have been an inside job.)
Cocaine conduit
The R286-million cocaine consignment intercepted in Aeroton in July 2021 was trafficked into South Africa from Brazil. Various cocaine consignments from Brazil have been intercepted in this country.
The Aeroton consignment was inside a shipping container carrying Scania truck parts.
Sebola, testifying on Thursday about the messages between people allegedly linked to the Aeroton cocaine, said: “There was also a photo that shows it was taken from [the] Apolonis ship that arrived in Durban from Sao Paolo, Brazil that week.”
The photograph from the ship suggested that figures in South Africa were in communication with those present with the cocaine trafficked into the country.
‘Getaway’ versus ‘police’ vehicle
Earlier this week, Magane, one of the police officers initially facing charges in the Aeroton case, testified.
He told the Madlanga Commission that Nku was Mashaba’s informant who had received information about the cocaine in South Africa.
Magane had said the truck with the cocaine was followed to Aeroton, where he and Mashaba had asked that the container in question be opened.
/file/attachments/orphans/WhatsAppImage2026-05-12at122459_380488.jpg "Cocaine worth about R286-million was discovered in 2021, concealed in a consignment of truck parts in Aeroton, Johannesburg. (Photo: Madlanga Commission of Inquiry)")
According to Magane, bags of cocaine inside a container (which also contained truck parts) on the truck were loaded on to the open bakkie he had driven there, so that the consignment could be transported to a police station.
He and those around him had not been wearing gloves, and the cocaine bags were not placed in evidence bags.
Magane agreed during his testimony that the crime scene had been contaminated.
Sebola testified on Thursday that fellow police officers had told him that Magane had been trying to leave the scene in the bakkie.
“It was incorrect for him to do that,” Sebola said.
Magane had previously testified that he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Curious Khan aspect
During Thursday’s Madlanga Commission proceedings, attention returned to Crime Intelligence officer Major General Feroz Khan, who had been at the Aeroton cocaine interception.
Magane earlier testified that Khan had called him, and those he was with, “tsotsi police”.
Khan previously faced internal disciplinary action over his presence there, but he was cleared.
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_608566_200387.jpg "Crime Intelligence officer Feroz Khan appears in the Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court on 11 May 2026 in a case linked to illicit precious metal allegations. (Photo: Gallo Images / OJ Koloti)")
Sebola said on Thursday that he never saw Khan at the scene, which the commission’s evidence leaders found strange, given Khan’s prominence there.
It was put to Sebola that he had intentionally, for some reason, omitted Khan from his version of events.
Sebola insisted: “I still maintain I did not see General Khan on the scene.
“I did not interact with General Khan on the scene.”
Sebola is set to continue testifying on a date that is yet to be determined.
Earlier this week, the Madlanga Commission heard that R55-million worth of the cocaine seized in Aeroton subsequently went missing from a forensic science laboratory where it was being stored.
The commission is expected to hear from another witness on Friday, 15 May.
It will then take a break to focus on preparing a second interim report due to be delivered to President Cyril Ramaphosa on 29 May. DM