Chose Port Shepstone for its 'unbreachable' safes
Picked the office after Isipingo SAPS and the forensic lab could not store the drugs.
Nyuswa testified that after Lt-Col Gavin Jacob called him about the 22 June 2021 Isipingo seizure, and with Isipingo SAPS refusing to hold it and the Forensic Science Laboratory short of space, he identified the Port Shepstone Hawks offices as the alternative. He said the landlord had assured them the strong-room safes 'could not be breached, they could only be accessed with the keys', and that hashish and mandrax exhibits had been stored there safely before.
Conceded known security weaknesses and a chain-of-custody lapse
Acknowledged the alarm fault and that exhibits were not bagged at Isipingo.
He acknowledged security weaknesses at the premises, including an alarm that did not work after load shedding, but said his 'main focus was the safe that could be used'. He conceded he failed to secure Isipingo police station as a safer alternative, and that the chain of custody was compromised when the exhibits were not placed in exhibit bags at Isipingo.
Says Senona approved the site and took both keys
Provincial head signed off on Port Shepstone, then held the original and spare keys.
Nyuswa testified he phoned then-KZN Hawks head Major General Lesetja Senona, suggested the Port Shepstone strong room, and that Senona approved it and instructed him to arrange storage - including having Lt-Col Jakobus Prinsloo obtain the spare key from supply chain management. After the strong room was locked, he said, Senona took possession of both the original and the spare key: 'Who better to have ownership and responsibility over the keys than the provincial head?'
Disputes that Senona was unaware of the security gaps
Says the provincial head had toured the offices and was briefed on the upgrades.
He told the commission he 'could not understand why Senona would claim ignorance of the security situation at the Port Shepstone office', testifying that Senona had visited all provincial offices after arriving in August 2020 and that supply chain management was procuring upgraded security and reporting progress to him.
Suspected the heist was staged
Said he was sceptical the safe was breached by grinding the door.
Nyuswa said he was 'shocked that the safe had been breached, but more than that ... sceptical that it had been breached by grinding the door', and suspected the scene was staged because he understood the strong room could not be accessed without a key. He questioned why DPCI investigators had not obtained expert analysis on whether grinding could breach the door.
Says he knows the thief but would not name them
Refused to identify who stole the cocaine.
He told the commission he knows the identity of the person who stole the cocaine but declined to name them: 'I can't say the name, commissioners.'
Denied involvement and apologised
Rejected being 'Senona's guy'; apologised to South Africans.
Nyuswa said he 'had nothing to do with the Port Shepstone theft' and denied a close relationship with Senona, describing it as 'strictly that of senior and junior colleagues'. He apologised to South Africans for his involvement and expressed regret.
Defended sending an inexperienced officer to the scene
Stood by deploying Lt-Col Kwazikwakhe Sibiya despite his lack of drug-bust experience.
Pressed on why Lt-Col Kwazikwakhe Sibiya - who worked in the human-trafficking unit with no major drug-bust experience - was sent to the scene, Nyuswa defended the decision.
Senona later pushed back on his account
On his 19 June return Senona contradicted Nyuswa on the security warnings and the polygraphs.
When Major General Senona returned to the commission on 19 June 2026 (Day 122), he contradicted Nyuswa on two points: he said no security threats at the Port Shepstone office were ever reported to him - against Nyuswa's evidence that the provincial head had toured the offices and was briefed on the upgrades - and he said it was Nyuswa who initiated the polygraph applications over a run of office thefts, while he himself only signed the call-up instruction. All untested.
Disclosed a separate misconduct charge alongside Senona
Said he is among five officers charged over a 2023 KZN kidnapping investigation.
Nyuswa told the commission he, then-KZN Hawks head Major General Lesetja Senona and three other officers (Colonel Ismail Dawood, Lieutenant-Colonel Deena Govender and Captain Azile Enoch) were charged with misconduct over their handling of a 2023 investigation into the kidnapping of KZN businessman Zakariyya Desai. The complaint was lodged with Hawks head office by Esmael Nangy, an alleged kidnapping figure whose name has separately surfaced at the commission. The NPA withdrew the related criminal charges in January 2025; the disciplinary process has not been reported as finalised. All of these allegations are untested.
