Police counter-intelligence boss Maj-Gen Feroz Khan allegedly misled an internal police disciplinary panel, led by KwaZulu-Natal commission Lt-Gen Nhlahla Mkhwanazi, which cleared him of wrongdoing in a “chaotic” cocaine seizure in Johannesburg.
In July 2021, Khan attended a raid in which police uncovered 715kg of cocaine in a container that had been driven by truck from Durban to Aeroton, south of Johannesburg. The drugs are believed to be from Brazil.
Some of the drugs allegedly went missing during the operation.
Steve Phakula, a warrant officer with the SAPS’s National Intervention Unit, testified at the Madlanga commission of inquiry investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in law enforcement that the word among staff was that the drugs belonged to Khan.
Part of the commission’s terms of reference is investigating allegations that drug cartels have links to police officers.
Phakula said he has no evidence or statements to support the rumours about Khan.
Phakula and crime information management and analysis centre commander Marumo Magane were arrested at the scene of the raid and charged with possession of drugs, drug trafficking and fraud.
Phakula said their arrest, with an informer who had tipped off the police about the drug operation, was done on Khan’s instruction.
Khan was only cleared of wrongdoing because he had misled Mkhwanazi and the panel, he said.
“I listened to the hearing recording where Maj-Gen Khan said that I had insisted on meeting him. These were all misleading statements that might have influenced the decision of the chairperson,” Phakula said.
Phakula testified on Tuesday it was Khan who had asked to meet him.
Khan “gave instructions” for the informer’s arrest, he said, and “prevented the dog unit from performing their duties at the scene”.
One Lt-Col Maluleke saw Khan “walking away with the driver from the scene”.
Mkhwanazi previously testified at the commission that Khan was cleared of wrongdoing regarding the drug raid case after an inquiry by an internal police panel.
Mkhwanazi said Khan had “saved the image of SAPS” during the operation after intervening.
Phakula and Magane face allegations of mishandling and contaminating a crime scene.
Phakula told the commission that when he arrived at the scene, some of the drugs had been packed on Magane’s bakkie after they had fallen out of a truck container.
The scene was contaminated due to the removal of some of the drugs from the truck to the bakkie and several people arriving and taking over the investigation, he said.
Khan and Hawks officers under Maj-Gen Ebrahim Kadwa took over at the scene after Phakula’s arrest.
Khan requested to meet him on September 16 2021, after he had been released on bail, Phakula said.
“Gen Khan asked me who the drugs belonged to, and I told him people say they belong to him, and he laughed,” Phakula said.
“After our arrest people were saying the drugs belong to him, Gen Khan. I was serious when I said that, and he laughed it off.”
He said Khan wanted to know how the informer knew about the drugs and asked Phakula to facilitate a meeting with the informer.
Though Phakula agreed, he said he did not set up the meeting.
Khan has not yet appeared before the commission to respond to the allegations.
He and Kadwa face a criminal case regarding breaching the Precious Metals Act.
The National Prosecuting Authority withdrew charges against Phakula in January 2024. He also won a labour court case and was reinstated at work.
Phakula told the commission that he and other officers were arrested because senior officers wanted to take over the scene.
“The only way for them to take over the crime scene was to get us arrested or intimidate us that way. There are a lot of things that are questionable. If they wanted to investigate this case, I believe they could have done it better,” he said.
In his evidence-in-chief Phakula insisted that he had followed correct procedure when he arrived on the scene, but it was called into question by commission chair justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
“We have heard the testimony of Magane, who said the opposite,” Madlanga said. “That everything they could have done wrong, they did wrong. It was a mess, a complete mess in terms of handling a crime scene. How can you say what you are saying here?”
Phakula said his evidence was limited to what he had done on the scene, but Madlanga put it to him that even his actions in handling the scene did not pass the police procedure muster.
“Your statement is totally untrue. Why did you make an untruthful statement? Were you protecting Magane?” Madlanga said.
Phakula conceded he made an untruthful statement in his evidence but denied he did so to protect his colleague.
• This article has been updated with more information throughout.
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