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Hearing record

Day 107

Warrant Officer Boy Steve Phakula concedes he lied to the commission about the Aeroton cocaine seizure, and turns on a senior officer - accusing Major-General Feroz Khan of engineering arrests to derail the bust.

Official transcript (PDF) ↗All hearing days
Still from Day 107 of the Madlanga Commission

The day in brief

What you need to know

  • IOL reported that Phakula was forced to concede he had lied in his testimony after being confronted with contradictions between his oral account and his written statement about the Aeroton seizure.
  • A central contradiction: Phakula said in oral evidence he knew the black plastic bags held cocaine because he could smell them, having earlier told the commission he had no idea what cocaine smelled like.
  • The Mail & Guardian reported Phakula accused Major-General Feroz Khan of orchestrating arrests at the scene to derail the cocaine bust - an allegation Khan, who has been called to appear, is yet to answer.
  • Daily Maverick reported that 'corridor gossip' at the scene named Khan as the alleged owner of the R286 million consignment, a claim the commission has treated as hearsay to be tested, not fact.
  • Phakula also described receiving threatening messages linked to the consignment, telling the commission he was under pressure as the bust unravelled.
  • The day sharpened the commission's core question on Aeroton: whether the seizure collapsed through the acts of junior officers at the scene, senior interference from above, or both.
  • Khan has not been convicted of any offence connected to the bust and denies wrongdoing; the allegations against him remain untested and he retains the presumption of innocence.

Full coverage

The day, in depth

An admission of lying

IOL reported that under cross-examination Phakula could not reconcile his shifting accounts and admitted he had lied about aspects of the seizure. The clearest example was his claim to have smelled the cocaine, which clashed with an earlier statement that he did not know its smell. The concession damaged his credibility on the very events the commission is trying to reconstruct.

Pointing up the chain

The Mail & Guardian and Daily Maverick reported that Phakula sought to shift focus to Major-General Feroz Khan, accusing him of orchestrating arrests to sabotage the bust and repeating scene-level talk that named Khan as the consignment's owner. The commission flagged this as untested allegation and hearsay. Khan has been summoned to respond, and until he does the claims sit on one side of the ledger only.

In their words

Key moments from the record

“I'm getting heavy threats”
Under threat. Phakula told the commission he had been receiving threatening messages tied to the R286 million cocaine consignment as he faced questions about his role.

Our analysis

The bottom line

Phakula's day cuts two ways, and both should be held at once. His admission that he lied is a genuine blow to his reliability - a witness who concedes fabrication on one point invites scrutiny on every other. That caution has to travel with his more explosive claims against Khan, however plausible they may sound.

The accusation that a senior officer engineered arrests to kill a drug bust is serious and, if ever proven, points to interference far graver than a contaminated scene. But it arrives from a witness whose candour is in doubt, resting partly on 'corridor gossip', and against an officer who has not yet testified. The fair-comment bottom line: Day 107 raises the stakes without settling them, and the commission was right to treat the Khan allegations as leads to be tested rather than findings.

Analysis is the archive’s own comment on the public proceedings, grounded in the record above. It weighs the evidence and the process; questions of individual guilt are for the courts and the commission to decide. Everyone named is presumed innocent.

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Related case files

Case file · Drug seizures

Aeroton cocaine bust

A cocaine seizure from Brazil, routed through Durban to Gauteng, compromised at the scene with R55 million later unaccounted for - and a forensic trail pointing to an organised syndicate with insiders at the port. One of two cocaine cases the commission ties to the same trafficking pattern.

Read the case file →

In the room & on the record

Counsel, the panel and sources

On the panel

  • Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)

Sources

← Earlier in timeDay 10612 May 2026More recent →Day 10814 May 2026