Tumelo Nku has told the Madlanga Commission that he intended to prevent the drug consignment from reaching its intended owner.
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Businessman Tumelo Nku, who claimed to be an informant at the scene of the R300 million drug bust in Aeroton, Johannesburg in 2021, has told the Madlanga Commission that he arranged a drug bust to assist a drug trafficker known as ‘Eby’ in ensuring that drugs do not reach the intended recipient.
Nku was testifying before the Commission on Monday, where he explained that he was introduced to Eby by his distant relative, the late former Deputy Defence Minister, Kebby Maphatsoe, in 2021.
He said during the introduction, he was made to understand Eby as someone with interests in coal mining. Nku added that Maphatsoe knew he had an extensive network within the shipping space and Transnet.
“Maphatsoe told me that Eby needed assistance in relation to tracking the consignment belonging to a competitor. As it was explained to me, the intended objective was to use information relating to the shipment so that law enforcement could intercept the consignment,” Nku stated.
He added that during the introduction, Maphatsoe did not say that the consignment was for drugs. Instead, everything was narrowed down to a consignment that needed to be intercepted through a bust.
“The main objective was that the consignment must not reach its intended recipient. The bust would be significant in that it would be the only indicator that the operation was successful,” Nku said.
He stated that the bust would have disrupted the competitor’s relationship with suppliers, adding that had the drugs not been intercepted, there would have been a turf war.
He told the Commission that the R60,000 cash that he had kept in his car while driving to Durban and back was meant to pay ‘bribes’ to Transnet official Zamo Khuzwayo, who was going to help Nku access the relevant information in the tracking system.
The information was in turn going to be used to track the real-time movements or whereabouts of the truck carrying drugs.
Nku said that Khuzwayo was unable to access the required information because it had been ‘soft-locked’, only allowing a case manager to access it. As a result, Khuzwayo did not receive the cash payment.
Khuzwayo was, however, able to share still images with details of the truck, which were screenshots from a Transnet tracking system.
Nku was arrested at the Aeroton drug bust scene, alongside Samuel Mashaba, who worked in traffic services and served as the acting deputy director of Gauteng’s Community Safety Department; Warrant Officer Steve Phakula, a member of the National Intervention Unit; and Warrant Officer Marumo Magane of the Zonkizizwe police station, for dealing in drugs.