The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry heard on May 5 that the chain of events following the 2021 seizure of 541 bricks of cocaine worth about R200m in Durban may not have been accidental, but rather orchestrated.

The drugs were later moved to a Hawks storage facility in Port Shepstone, where it was stolen in November 2021.

Testifying before the commission, Major-General Hendrick Flynn, head of Serious Organised Crime within the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, said he believes the theft was deliberate.

“I am of the view that it is no coincidence and that the sequence of events is indeed by design,” Flynn told the inquiry.

Flynn said there had been “substantial progress” in the investigation since his appointment as component head in September 2024, adding that organised crime typically involves corruption in both the public and private sectors.

His remarks came in response to questions from Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, who asked whether the incidents involving Hawks members could be explained as a “comedy of errors” or something more calculated.

Madlanga said it was difficult to accept that a single case could involve such a breakdown in procedure, describing it as unlikely to be merely a “comedy of errors.”

Flynn’s evidence also raised concerns about how the crime scene was handled, indicating that proper protocols were not followed.

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