Team probing the Hawks ‘was biased‘

Colonel Gavin Jacob, the commander of the Hawks’ Durban Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit, has denied any involvement in the theft of 541kg of cocaine, telling the Madlanga commission that an internal investigation into the matter had been falsified. “I had no involvement in the theft of the 541kg cocaine consignment that was stolen during a break-in at the Port Shepstone DPCI office,” he said. Jacob said he had been on leave when he had received a call from Lieutenant Colonel Jabulani Duma, about information relating to drugs at the Isipingo depot in Durban. He alleged that Major General Hendrick Fynn had falsified an investigation to wrongly implicate Hawks members. Fynn previously told the commission that the Hawks team had failed to follow proper procedures when inspecting and storing the drugs. Retired Hawks Lieutenant Colonel Jakobus Prinsloo has told the commission that the theft might have been an inside job. Jacob said a witness, who had come forward in February 2026, had claimed to have information about the break-in at the Hawks’ Port Shepstone office. The lead had never been followed up. On 22 June 2021, Jacobs, accompanied by Warrant Officers Shadrack Sibiya and Livingston Mpangase, investigated the cocaine shipment that was later stolen from the Hawks’ Port Shepstone office. The Hawks found 27 bags containing 541 bricks of cocaine weighing 1kg each. The consignment was subsequently stored at the Port Shepstone office. Jacob alleged that Fynn had misled the commission during his testimony in May, adding that he had simply been following instructions to store the drugs at the Port Shepstone head office. He had not been aware it had had numerous break-ins. “The damage that General Fynn’s evidence has caused to us, innocent members, by creating his false narrative and orchestrating his investigation to suit the same, is irreparable,” he said. Several Hawks members faced a disciplinary process after the theft and were subjected to a polygraph exami