‘I was on leave’: Hawks officer recounts polygraph over R200m cocaine theft

Warrant officer Karl Sander testifies before the Madlanga commission at Brigitte Mabandla Judicial College in Pretoria on 1 June 2026. Picture: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu The Madlanga commission on Monday resumed its inquiry into the high-profile theft of cocaine worth R200 million, with witness testimony revealing internal tensions and disputed polygraph results. Karl Sander, a warrant officer within the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also known as Hawks, returned to the witness stand following a two-week pause in proceedings.

The commission is investigating the disappearance of 541 kilograms of cocaine from a Hawks storage facility in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) inNovember 2021. The drugs had been seized months earlier in June 2021 at a depot in Isipingo, Durban, before being placed in police custody. Testifying at the Bridgette Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria, Sander told the commission that, despite not being present when thedrugs went missing, he was treated as a suspect in the case.

“I was a suspect. I was called in; I was polygraphed for it. I was never there.

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That’s all I know about the Port Shepstone matter. I was on leave,” he said. “Our senior managers came into the office one day, said what they needed to say, and then we were told that we were all suspects.

“Obviously, I did not agree with that, and then we were sent for polygraphs,” Sander explained. He added that he had no operational connection to the Port Shepstone facility where the drugs were stored.

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