Why Senona skipped polygraph test after R200m cocaine theft at Hawks office

Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya, a former Hawks head with extensive investigative experience, struggled to explain to the Madlanga commission why he had not subjected Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona to a polygraph test after drugs worth R200m were stolen under his watch.

Lebeya had received a report that the drugs seizure had been mishandled, as they were stored at the Port Shepstone Hawks office, where there were security breaches.

It was revealed that CCTV cameras and alarms were malfunctioning at the office and there was no 24-hour security.

Firearms stored at the facility had not been stolen during the drug theft, which suggested the suspects were only after the cocaine.

“Based on the glaring security breaches, it is not clear what motivated the provincial management [Senona] to consider Port Shepstone as a safe place to store drugs of such high value,” a report on the probe into the theft read.

Witnesses who previously testified at the commission revealed that the drugs should have been stored at a police station or taken to the forensic lab.

Another red flag the commission expected Lebeya to pick up on was that it was Senona who had the key to the safe room where the drugs were stored.

After the theft of the drugs, Senona recommended that all Hawks officers involved in transporting the drugs to the storage facility where they were later stolen undergo polygraph tests, and asked Lebeya to authorise it. However, Senona did not take one himself.

On Tuesday, Lebeya was asked why he had exempted Senona from the polygraph test.

“I have not subjected him to a polygraph test because at the time I was considering him to be the complainant,” Lebeya said.

Lebeya was then pressed on why someone who was the custodian of the drugs that were stolen in what appeared to be an inside job should not be subjected to a polygraph test.

“There was no evidence of wrongdoing on his (Senona’s) side,” he responded.

He was then asked if there was evidence of wrongdoing by people that Senona had subjected to polygraph tests.

“I had not interrogated the evidence against those people,” Lebeya responded.

Evidence leader advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube then asked Lebeya whether he had not ordered that Senona undergo a polygraph test to protect or cover up for himself.

However, Lebeya denied that, and when asked if he had instituted a disciplinary process on the basis that he might have been negligent, he said no.

The drugs have been a prominent part of the commission’s investigation, as it is believed the theft from the Hawks office was an inside job.

Earlier on, Lebeya told the commission that he could not recall whether Senona had told him where he had decided to store the drugs.

He also said it was not the first time exhibits were stored at the facility.

Segeels-Ncube asked Lebeya what he did after he was told the drugs had been stolen. Lebeya said he initiated two investigations, a fact-finding case and a criminal investigation.

He said at no point had provincial officers requested that the transfer of the drugs to a lab be fast-tracked.

Senona previously told the commission he had not subjected himself to the polygraph test because the order had to come from his superior, Gen Lebeya.