Witness
Businessman; alleged Aeroton consignment contact · Gauteng
Summoned · to testify 17 June 2026
A businessman at the centre of the Aeroton strand of the Madlanga Commission. According to evidence led so far, Nku is the man who tipped off Gauteng traffic chief Samuel Mashaba to the cocaine truck travelling from Durban a day before the 2021 Aeroton bust, and whose WhatsApp exchanges with Mashaba the commission has used to question their relationship. He is described in some testimony as a police informant, but the commission has heard he was making payments to Mashaba - the reverse of how informants are handled. Nku has not yet testified; he is expected before the commission from 17 June 2026. All references to him are untested allegations and he is presumed innocent.
This profile summarises testimony and evidence given on the public record before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. It restates allegations as presented at the hearings and is not a finding of guilt, liability, or wrongdoing by any person.
Their role
Evidence before the commission is that Nku alerted Mashaba, the night before the 2021 Aeroton bust, to a truck travelling from Durban allegedly carrying drugs, giving him the truck's details the next morning. The Mail & Guardian reported the commission heard Nku was tracked alongside the roughly 715kg cocaine shipment from Durban to Johannesburg. These are untested allegations.
Evidence leaders put it to Mashaba that Nku 'was funding' him - making payments to a serving officer, the opposite of how a registered police informant is handled. The commission has used this to question Mashaba's claim that Nku was merely his informer. Untested allegations; presumed innocent.
The commission examined extensive WhatsApp chats between Nku and Mashaba, including messages about the truck's movements and avoiding detection. Hawks investigator Lt-Col Nkoana Sebola earlier testified that a contact saved as 'General Mashaba of Hawks' on a suspect's phone was matched by cellphone number to Mashaba. Untested allegations.
Among the Nku-Mashaba chats the commission scrutinised were a 29 May 2019 message reading 'I see DD is back, let's move on our issues' - which the commission says refers to the late Deputy President David 'DD' Mabuza - and a June 2019 message in which Mashaba urged that they 'look after Faith', newly appointed Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko. Neither Mabuza (deceased) nor Mazibuko is a commission witness; these are untested allegations and all named are presumed innocent.
IPID investigator Zelda Maphosho earlier testified that she interviewed Nku, who claimed to be a police informer but offered nothing she could verify, spoke vaguely of working for a now-deceased general and of 'hacking', and was likely not a registered informer. His true role is among the questions the commission expects to put to him directly. Untested allegations.
The commission heard that Nku was at the Aeroton scene, parked near the drug-laden bakkie, with about R60,000 in cash found in his car. Commissioner Sandile Khumalo questioned whether it was normal for an informant to carry that much cash and suggested Nku may have been there to keep watch over the drugs and establish where they were headed - rather than acting as a police source. These are untested allegations; Nku is presumed innocent and is expected to give his own account from 17 June 2026.
On the stand
Connections
Chief Provincial Inspector, Gauteng Traffic Police
Nku is the businessman who allegedly tipped Mashaba to the Durban cocaine truck and, the commission heard, made payments to him; their WhatsApp exchanges drove the cross-examination that led Madlanga to tell Mashaba he was 'being untruthful'. Untested allegations.
View profile →Related caseThe case file that ties these witnesses together.
Open case file →Exhibits
Sources
