A web of drug accusations connects a R252-million cocaine consignment retrieved off the Western Cape coast to alleged drug trafficking in Gauteng, where accusations are rife that law enforcers have been colluding with traffickers.
The coastal case hinges on cocaine that was intercepted on land in Still Bay in July 2024 after it was apparently retrieved from the sea.
Daily Maverick has previously reported how traffickers from other countries sometimes partner with local gang bosses who send members in boats from coastal hubs to retrieve drug consignments offloaded from ships.
Sometimes, retrievals are outsourced to individuals simply desperate for money and not linked to gangs.
The Still Bay case experienced a major development last week when it emerged that one of the accused – Alan Bushby of Midrand in Gauteng – entered a plea and accepted a sentencing deal.
He was convicted for dealing in drugs that were brought into this country from international waters along Still Bay and sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail.
Bushby also made harrowing allegations about a murder at sea – an unidentified individual was apparently shot, and his body dumped overboard.
Daily Maverick has established two others facing charges in this case were arrested in 2025 in connection with suspected drug trafficking in Gauteng.
Suspects across SA
The arrests in the Still Bay case did not happen simultaneously, but were spread out and involved individuals residing across the country.
According to the State, aside from Bushy, the other accused in the case are:
Renaldo Beukes (25) and Dicky Johan Benzien (50) of Hermanus (a seaside town in Western Cape);
Mathew Fourie (23) of Durban (KwaZulu-Natal);
Jordan Cullingworth (29) of Fourways (Gauteng);
Nemanja Vuckovic (31) of Amamzimtoti (KwaZulu-Natal), who may be from Serbia originally;
Marko Ninc (also spelled Minic) (41), who may be from Russia or Serbia and whose address may not be known to the State;
Josip Ivanovic (39) of Sandton (Gauteng), but originally from another country, because he, Ninc and Vuckovic also face charges for allegedly having been in South Africa illegally.
#sapsHAWKS Western Cape: #Hawks ' South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau (SANEB) team based in George arrested a third additional suspect (39) on 11/02 on charges of dealing in drugs after the execution of a warrant of arrest. The suspect was arrested in Sandton,… pic.twitter.com/TW4Ho3QaaA
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) February 12, 2025
Bushby is set to testify against them in this case, which is scheduled to resume at the end of August. Their full versions of events may become clearer as court hearings proceed.
Fourie and Vuckovic, meanwhile, were detained in another matter after the July 2024 cocaine interception in Still Bay.
They were arrested in Gauteng, which shifts aspects of the Still Bay case closer to South Africa’s law enforcement scandal.
‘Big Five base’ – Gauteng
In July last year, KwaZulu-Natal police boss Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that a drug cartel, later identified as the Big Five, is headquartered in Gauteng and that it has infiltrated the criminal justice sector and politics.
This is the crux of South Africa’s unprecedented law enforcement scandal.
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is investigating the cartel infiltration accusations and has recently heard from several police witnesses who detailed how colleagues, by intent or incompetence, thwarted global trafficking investigations .
KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at the Parliament’s ad hoc committee, which is investigating his accusations a drug cartel has infiltrated the criminal justice system. (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Image) Back to Fourie and Vuckovic.
About seven months after the Still Bay case started developing, Fourie and Vuckovic were arrested in Gauteng in March 2025, with the Hawks saying R1-million worth of cocaine was also seized.
While it was not clear exactly what happened in this case, Daily Maverick understands that Fourie and Vuckovic distanced themselves from accusations of criminality.
According to a news article in The Citizen after their arrests, the Hawks had been following up “on intelligence received about the transportation and distribution of cocaine from KwaZulu-Natal into Gauteng, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni”.
The route – from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal to Gauteng – happens to be the same one that police officers have alleged is used by the Big Five when transporting drugs initially shipped to Durban. (This is not to suggest Fourie and Vuckovic are part of the Big Five.)
Gauteng Hawks head Ebrahim Kadwa appears in the Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court on 11 May 2026 in a case relating to illicit precious metal accusations. (Photo: Gallo Images/OJ Koloti) The Citizen article said that the head of the Hawks in Gauteng, Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa, had commended the team that carried out the two arrests and seized cocaine.
Kadwa was quoted as saying: “The continued par…
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