Hearing record
Day 48
Witness: Major General Lesetja Senona
Senona continues in the witness chair, with the commission drilling into the strongroom's security, the handling of the safe keys and the polygraph applications that followed the disappearance of the Port Shepstone cocaine.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Major General Lesetja Senona continued his testimony on the Port Shepstone cocaine matter.
- The commission examined the security of the strongroom where the roughly 541kg consignment was held.
- Evidence touched on the control of the safe keys and who took possession of them after the drugs were locked away.
- The polygraph applications connected to the case were part of the day's threads, with Senona's account differing from other witnesses on who initiated them.
- Senona's evidence connects to that of Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa, who consulted him on moving the drugs, and Colonel Gavin Jacob, whose unit moved them.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
Scrutiny of a 'vulnerable' facility
The commission heard evidence characterising the Port Shepstone office as poorly suited to holding a consignment of this size and value. Questions focused on how a record cocaine haul came to sit in a facility whose security would later be called into doubt, and on the steps taken, or not taken, to safeguard it. All of this was presented as evidence to be weighed, not as established fact against any individual.
Keys, custody and polygraphs
A recurring theme was the control of the safe keys and the custody arrangements at the strongroom. The commission has heard that Senona took possession of the keys after the drugs were secured. Testimony also addressed the polygraph applications that followed, with Senona indicating that others initiated them, an account that sits alongside differing versions from fellow officers. These are contested points on the record, and the commission had not made findings.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Day 48 sharpened the focus from the decision to store the drugs to the mechanics of keeping them safe. The distinction matters: a case can turn on who physically controlled access to a strongroom and on the paperwork that was, or was not, completed. The archive records these as competing accounts rather than conclusions.
Where witnesses diverge - on who held the keys, who ordered polygraphs, and who completed the control documentation - the commission's task is to reconcile the record. For readers, the useful takeaway is not blame but the shape of the disagreement, which the commission will test against documents and other testimony.
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.
On the record
Who testified this day
Follow the threads
Who Major General Lesetja Senona connects to
Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa
Nyuswa testified Senona approved storing the cocaine at Port Shepstone and then took possession of both safe keys; Senona says Nyuswa initiated the polygraph applications.
View profile →Top of the chainColonel Gavin Jacob
Jacob's unit moved the drugs to the site Senona directed.
View profile →Signed his transferWarrant Officer Karl Sander
Senona signed Sander's Feb 2024 transfer letter and ordered his polygraphs; on 19 June he said Sander 'misled the commission'.
View profile →Accused of misleading the inquiryLieutenant Colonel Jakobus Prinsloo (retired)
Senona told the commission on 19 June that retired Lt-Col Prinsloo misled it over the Port Shepstone storage handling.
View profile →In the room & on the record
Counsel, the panel and sources
On the panel
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)