Yellow Jersey

MR N K U confirmed that tracking and trace information exists for a container transported by a truck, which eventually arrived at Yellow Jersey depot.

“this is the same truck that eventually was, at least arrived at Yellow Jersey ... confirmed that the truck was in fact on the move and provided information regarding the truck's whereabouts after departure from Durban port”

MR N K U was provided a contact person, Sandra Hedendracht of Yellow Jersey, who confirmed the movement and location coordinates of the truck carrying the container.

“The contact person was Ms Sandra Hedendracht of Yellow Jersey. Ms Hedendracht confirmed that the truck was in fact on the move and provided information regarding the truck’s whereabouts after departure from Durban port”

Mr Nku forwarded a message to Chief Mashabatha with the coordinates to Yellow Jersey and a request to be there before 6:30 AM.

“you text or you forward a message to Chief Mashaba, sending him at least what appears to be the location or the coordinates to the Yellow Jersey in Roodepoort... you send a message that follows to say we need to go there, and lastly you mention the time where it says before 6.30.”

On the morning of 2021-07-09, Mr Nku met Chief Mashabatha and proceeded to Yellow Jersey where he observed Chief Mashabatha had arrived alone without law enforcement or operational support.

“On the morning of the 9th 2021, I met with Chief Mashabatha, we proceeded to Yellow Jersey. I was surprised to observe that Chief Mashabatha had arrived alone and was not accompanied by any visible team of law enforcement officials or operational support.”

Chief Mashabatha and Warrant Officer Mogana went inside Yellow Jersey premises to follow up on the information and appeared to agree to open the container, witnessing black duffel bags fall out which matched previously sent pictures containing alleged drugs.

“Chief Mashaba and Warrant Officer Mogana went inside the premises of Yellow Jersey to follow up on the information I provided. Within a few minutes, the two came back and Mashaba told me to follow them... They seemed to have agreed to open the container. As soon as they opened the container, I witnessed black duffel bags falling off the container. These bags matched the pictures of the black duffel bags that were sent to me previously containing alleged drugs by Iby.”

Chief Mashaba was supposed to organize law enforcement to arrive at the 'Yellow Jersey' location at 6:30 am to confiscate drugs, but there was no reason to pay him cash for this assistance.

“Chief Mashaba was supposed to organise law enforcement and they were to arrive at Yellow Jersey at 6 . 3 0 in the morning and law enforcement confiscated all these drugs, what was going to be the benefit for him to wake up at 5 . 0 0 in the morning to be there at 6 . 3 0 for something that SAPS or DPCI was going to take and claim credit ? ... There would not have been any reason , because , hence I say , in my experience , in my past experiences , there have been instances I have given information and then things comes short . So I would not have had any need to pay him . I stayed there , hence I maintained that I was neutral . My number one objective was to make sure that there is a bust , it is a recorded bust.”

Mr Nku was not near Yellow Jersey but parked over 500 meters away and would have vacated if he saw more police officers arriving.

“I was very far from Yellow Jersey. I was not even within the Yellow Jersey vicinity. I had parked 500 metres and more away from Yellow Jersey. Had I seen more police officers coming in , I would have definitely have vacated.”

Mr Nku claims that if he intended to be part of the operation, he would have driven with the police into Yellow Jersey; his role was limited to providing information, so he stayed behind and awaited instructions.

“If I wanted to be part of an operation , why not do it at the point of origin , at Yellow Jersey ? Because that would imply I knew that they were going to release the truck to go out . That is a decision they took , void of my presence . So if they had taken the intel , called all the relevant people there at Yellow Jersey , there would not have had to be an need for me to tag along because there was never prior communication or any communication while they were at Yellow Jersey.”

Mr Nku says if he wanted to be part of the operation, he would have done so from the start at Yellow Jersey, not joining later at Scania without prior discussions.

“If I really wanted to be part, then why not do it at the first instance? Why not be part where – because where I provided information, I am certain that everything is there inside, in Yellow Jersey. I should have been part from the onset. I should have went in with them. That is where I feel that if I needed or wanted to be part, I should have rather been part at Yellow Jersey, not after the fact at Scania. Because I never had any prior discussions regarding Scania. I was just told after the fact when moving out that we are going to Aeroton.”

Advocate Khumalo states there was no operation at Yellow Jersey; they instead went and asked management to open the container.

“That answer does not help you because there was no operation at Yellow Jersey. They went and they asked management to open the container.”

Management at Yellow Jersey refused to allow opening the container during an operation which did not take place at their premises.

“the reasons given were that management at Yellow Jersey refused to allow them to open the container”

Tumelo Nku sent a message to Samuel Mashaba with directions and coordinates using a Telegram account, specifying location as Yellow Jersey.

“He sent Samuel Mashaba, now... Mashaba Hawks, a location through Telegram of where they should go and the coordinates are that of Yellow Jersey. So it was Tumelo Nku sending Mashaba those directions.”

The coordinates sent in the Telegram message matched the location of Yellow Jersey, confirming Tumelo Nku knew where the truck was.

“Then you plot them to where they use Google Maps, then it gave me the location of Yellow Jersey... It means Tumelo Nku knew where the truck was.”

On the day of 9th, location data cannot confirm that the truck driver passed Yellow Jersey, raising questions about the track of the truck and its actual location.

“location on the day of the 9th , he cant tell you to say he went past Yellow Jersey ... Location of him ... Roodekop , so which was where Yellow Jersey is situated. Maybe he want to check the physical location of where the truck was”

Chief Mashaba states he received a call on the morning of 9 July and was sent a location relating to the Yellow Jersey operation, contradicting Nkusa's claim that no such call happened.

“On the 9th, in the morning, he called and sent me location ... I did not even know that is Yellow Jersey ... He had to even send me a location .”

Chief Mashaba confirms that Mr Nkua accompanied him from Yellow Jersey to Aeroton to avoid misunderstandings about information he provided to others.

“Mr Nkua asked me that will it be a problem for me to accompany you guys, because other informations that I gave to other people, I get to be told they were unsuccessful or I get to be told stories or excuses. Can I come with you guys? I said, I do not see this as a problem because I know I have worked with a lot of police that comes with their informers. The only thing I said to him, please make sure you sit in your car and you do not participate.”

On 9 July, Chief Mashaba and Magane introduced themselves to Yellow Jersey personnel as Crime Intelligence officers and tried to open a container without documentation, leading to a police callout due to aggressive and suspicious behavior.

“If you look at paragraph 3, they say on the 9th of July, Mr Van Niekerk was at home when Hardus, their Director, gave him a call stating that there are people from Crime Intelligence here asking to open the container. ... they say the reason for calling Booysens Police was because you did not want to identify yourselves, you were aggressive and you were behaving in a suspicious manner.”

Chief Mashaba was operating as a bogus Crime Intelligence officer on 9 July, impersonating a police officer according to Yellow Jersey employees' account.

“If what they are saying is true, it means you were impersonating a police officer. You were operating as a bogus Crime Intelligence officer if what they are saying is true.”

Yellow Jersey employees refused to open the container because Chief Mashaba and party did not have documentation and behaved aggressively, which led to involvement of the Booysens Police.

“They asked for documentation and you did not have documentation. ... the Booysens Police was called because you did not want to identify yourselves, you were aggressive and you were behaving in a suspicious manner.”

Regarding narcotics suspected to be transported from Durban to Gauteng, Chief Mashaba states jurisdiction and reporting would be to Alberton police station within SAPS.

“Let us start with its jurisdiction of that narcotics, where is it. ... Albertont. Because it is in Yellow Jersey. Yellow Jersey is policed by Alberton.”

Chief Mashaba went to Yellow Jersey premises with Mr Nkute and Mr Magane, got on the road behind the truck, and followed it to Scania premises where they conducted an operation involving opening a container that led to drugs being found and moved onto a van.

“you, Magane, went to Yellow Jersey property ... You enter that property, right? ... You then left the property following the truck. The truck left for Scania. You were behind the truck ... You all went to the property, I am right so far... You instruct the Scania people to open the container, the drugs fell out, and they were put onto a van.”

Chief Mashaba states he was refused entry to Yellow Jersey property initially but did enter the property with Mr Magane.

“I did not try to enter and I was refused. ... I did not enter. I entered with Magane.”

There is evidence of communication between Mr Tumelo Nku and an employee of Yellow Jersey regarding the case under investigation.

“you have just had a discussion with Ms Pooe about the different role players ... indicated as an employee at Yellow Jersey, and you say there is evidence of communication between that employee and Mr Nku, I think, Tumelo Nku”

It is suspicious that the truck traveling from Durban at 1 o'clock was nowhere in Johannesburg by 8 o'clock, implying the driver was involved in some scheme and did not stop at weigh bridges as instructed.

“it is really suspicious that at truck can't travel from Durban from 1 o'clock and then 8 o'clock is nowhere in Johannesburg”

There was an occurrence where a container arrived at a warehouse from Yellow Jersey on 2021-07-09 accompanied by a police officer who requested to open the container and discovered black bags containing drugs.

“On 2021-07-09 at about 9:00, the container arrived at the warehouse from Yellow Jersey. The truck was accompanied by the police officer. ... As they opened the container, the black bags fell out of the container and the police officer said it was drugs”

The truck was parked with other trucks at Yellow Jersey, and the team moved from one potential crime scene (premises of the truck) to another (destination) without searching the entire premises with full resources.

“there were other trucks that were parked there ... you see my difficulty is that if you moved that truck as you did and you followed it to its destination ... had you brought in the entire team, including the sniffer dogs and whatever, they could have searched the entire premises”

The cargo container carrying drugs landed at Durban port and was destined for Scania, but was transported by a Yellow Jersey truck whose driver is employed by Yellow Jersey, not Scania.

“At Scania, we found a person... Ms Jolene Wentzel... she was working at Scania as a Warehouse Supervisor and she also confirmed that the container was carrying their stuff from Brazil... the container was a load for Scania... Then the truck belongs to Yellow Jersey... the driver of the truck is in fact employed by Yellow Jersey, not by Scania.”

Mr Nku contacted Mr Mashaba and other police officers for assistance on the morning of the 9th regarding a container with drugs.

“he contacted them on the morning of the 9th for assistance”

There was an unsuccessful attempt to search the container at Yellow Jersey because there was no search warrant, and the officials were advised to deal with Scania, the end user.

“there was an unsuccessful attempt to search the container ... the people at Yellow Jersey indicated to him that he does not have a search warrant”

Mr Mashaba and colleagues proceeded to Scania under police escort; however, no formal police escort accompanied the truck—only Yellow Jersey security personnel did due to discomfort with the enquiry.

“except for Mr Mashaba and company, there was no police escort per se. It was security personnel from Yellow Jersey ... that escorted the truck”

The appropriate protocol at Yellow Jersey would have been to seize the truck, obtain a search warrant, and search the truck at Yellow Jersey, rather than follow the truck to the next destination.

“I would have placed the seizure on the truck and I would have obtained a search warrant and I would have searched the truck at Yellow Jersey”

In the incident described, the civilian employee of Yellow Jersey was able to issue an instruction mandating attendance or non-attendance at a scene, which is unusual and atypical practice.

“The civilian employee of Yellow Jersey is able to issue an instruction and say, we are going. Come or do not come, but we are going. That is actually what happened.”

Mr. Mashaba went to Yellow Jersey and was told he could not search.

“He went to, I think, Yellow Jersey, and he was told, no, you cannot search.”