Suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Lesetja Senona has vehemently denied that the break-in at the police storage facility in Port Shepstone was staged.
Senona, who appeared at the Madlanga Commission, said the steel door that was breached could only have been penetrated by experts.
It is suspected that a key kept by Senona and frequently borrowed by other officers may have been used in the theft, with the door later broken to make it look like a robbery. However, Senona disputes this version, suggesting that a group — including someone with experience in bypassing security safes — must have carried out the theft.
“For a person to open the safe with the key and then come and grind it… if they can show me that picture here, I wanted to indicate to the commissioners that the people of the country believe I stole the drugs, and I didn’t. I did not participate directly or indirectly in the theft of these drugs, and I am pained inside because people came here and testified to the commissioners that they know who did it. If I was part of the investigation, I can bet with my life I would have been arrested by now.
I am raising this simply as a possibility. I’m not suggesting that this is what in fact happened. It’s not so insane if what you are trying to do is stage a theft. I’m only raising it in that context to give you, and to be fair to you, the opportunity to respond to that. I was not there, so I’m not going to suggest it happened this way or that way, but there are many possibilities, hence I’m asking,” said Senona.
Five years after the robbery, the drugs have not been recovered and no one has been held accountable.
Senona even stood up to illustrate, using crime scene photographs, to demonstrate to the inquiry why he believes the robbery was not staged.
“It is insane when you look at that door. You can see, even when they zoom in, that the cutting is from the outside. If a person had a key, let’s say for argument’s sake it was me, I would go in, take whatever I want, and leave. I never staged this thing, and I don’t believe this is a staged thing. Hardened criminals came and stole this cocaine. They grinded the door at the top and at the bottom.
Look at the floor there next to what looks like a chair — that is a mechanism that was there. The locking mechanism is also here. These are the mechanisms of the locking system of this safe. From where I am sitting, there is no way a person would stage such a thing, open it, and leave it like that. You are listening to the owner of the building when he says this thing cannot be breached,” he said while pointing to the pictures.
Senona also sought to present himself as a victim of a smear campaign by colleagues linked to the drug theft.
“I want to categorically state, commissioners, that it is not a key, and I was never involved in the so-called staging of this crime scene. I am a police officer. I took an oath, and I am also willing that these people must be arrested.
They came here and testified before you, commissioners, and said they have a list of people who committed these acts. Why are we not told about that list? Investigators appointed after the Commission’s first report must probe this and ensure those responsible are arrested so we can get closure.
I am here explaining these things. I do not know who these suspects are. I do not know why they are linking management to this narrative, and I vehemently deny that I am linked to the suspects. I do not even know who they are,” he said.