Illustrative image: Colonel Gavin Jacob testifies before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. (Photo: Screen capture / YouTube) | Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. (Photo: Frennie Shivambu / Gallo Images) 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.
/file/attachments/orphans/WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-07-at-1000_555134.jpg "The Hawks building in Port Shepstone from where the cocaine was stolen. (Photo: Madlanga Commission of Inquiry)")
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.
‘An assumption and a lie’
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, he knew it could be problematic to store the cocaine there.
Commission chair Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga put it to him: “There can never be justification for you not asking if storage space is available. You simply made an assumption. Why did you make such an assumption on so serious a matter?”
Madlanga told Jacobs that “you lied” when informing Nyuswa that he had “exhausted all avenues” to find a place for the cocaine.
Jacob conceded: “I’ll have to agree. [But] I think it’s a strong word to say ‘lie.’”
He was asked if what he had said had been factually correct, to which Jacob replied: “Factually no, Sir.”
Madlanga then asked Jacob if that was not the description of a lie, and Jacob responded: “It sounds like that.”
Later in the proceedings, he said he took issue with “being portrayed as a liar” in relation to other issues.
Destruction plan
Another contentious issue that arose on Thursday was linked to what Jacob said he heard in October 2021, a month before the cocaine was stolen from the Port Shepstone building.
Jacob said he had heard from Brigadier Nyuswa that there had been an attempted break-in at the building and that he should expedite investigations into the cocaine.
/file/attachments/orphans/2026-05-0513_23_38-Greenshot_585871.jpg "The 541kg of cocaine that was stolen from the offices of the Hawks in Port Shepstone. (Photo: SAPS)")
According to Jacob, he was also asked to fast-track the consignment’s destruction. (This is what ultimately happens to seized drugs.)
He explained to the commission on Thursday that “the investigation was headed nowhere” and there was “nothing further” that could be done to identify suspects at the time.
He said he contacted Warrant Officer Bheki Setshedi, a member of the chemistry investigation unit of the Forensic Science Laboratory in KwaZulu-Natal, about the cocaine.
During Thursday’s proceedings, Jacob denied telling Setshedi that he feared the R200-million cocaine was at risk of being stolen from the Port Shepstone building after the attempted break-in there in October 2021.
(The commission previously heard that the cocaine theft was the eighth security breach there over a decade.)
“It’s laughable when I tell you the right story, but it’s impacted my life so badly,” said Jacob.
“I’m just going to play devil’s advocate […] How stupid would I be to go and tell a member of [the Forensic Science Laboratory], knowing I’m planning to steal drugs in a week’s time, that people are planning to break in there? How would I possibly know that?”
MADLANGA COMMISSION | Colonel Gavin Jacob says the drugs were moved due to lack of storage space, later proving unsafe and leading to theft. He adds he could have taken different action but did not anticipate what would happen. pic.twitter.com/6g9yl6EAbm
— SABC News (@SABCNews) June 4, 2026
It was put to Jacob that, based on his version of events, the theft of the cocaine from the Port Shepstone Hawks building was practically inevitable.
Meanwhile, there has been movement on the case.
On Wednesday, Jacob testified that in February this year, a suspect approached police investigators with information about the cocaine theft. He believed the information was credible.
The hearings continue. DM