The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has heard that someone within Transnet was working with some corrupt officers who enabled access of cocaine shipped from Brazil.
Hawks Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Sebola is testifying about the 2021 Aeroton cocaine bust, where more than 700 kilograms of cocaine – estimated to be worth over R300 million – were seized.
Sebola has presented screenshots of text message communication between the alleged implicated individuals.
Evidence leader, Advocate Thabang Pooe: “You know how you just testified that screenshot comes from the harbour, Transnet in particular. The two talk about pier one and two. What is significant about pier one and pier 2?”
Commissioner Sesi Baloyi: “Please say if I’m correct. It seems to suggest that someone within Transnet makes the decisions about where the ship should go and so is able to manipulate where it lands in order to facilitate the scheme of accessing the containers. Am I correct?”
Lieutenant-Colonel Sebola: “That is correct.”
Sebola further explained to the commission how the Threema messaging app works.
He says after he confiscated cellphones of several officers for investigation, he found that they had used the Threema App to communicate before the drug bust.
All confiscated devices underwent data extraction and analysis.
The Commissioners are testing the credibility of Sebola’s testimony.
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