What started as an effort to replace a stolen coffee machine has become one of the most remarkable public displays of support for a police officer in recent years.
Within days of being cleared by the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, veteran Hawks narcotics investigator Warrant Officer Karl Sander found himself at the centre of a fundraising campaign that has attracted more than R200,000 from South Africans determined to recognise his decades of service.
The BackaBuddy campaign was initially launched with a modest target of R5,000 to replace a coffee machine stolen from Sander's office. Instead, donations poured in from across the country, transforming a simple gesture into a broader show of appreciation for an officer many believe was unfairly targeted.
The surge in support followed explosive testimony before the Madlanga Commission, where Sander detailed what he described as a hostile working environment within the Hawks and the personal toll of a years-long saga linked to the theft of 541kg of cocaine worth about R200 million from a Hawks storage facility in Port Shepstone in 2021.
For years, the respected KwaZulu-Natal investigator found himself under suspicion despite maintaining his innocence. During his testimony, Sander revealed that he was subjected to a polygraph examination after his own coffee machine disappeared from his office.
"My only safe space was my coffee machine and then they stole my coffee machine inside the DPCI," he told the commission during his testimony on Monday.
The commission later heard that the polygraph test relied upon to cast suspicion on him was fundamentally flawed. Evidence presented before the inquiry found serious procedural failures, leading to the results being declared unreliable. Commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga was subsequently told that Sander had effectively been exonerated.
The moment proved emotional. After more than 40 years in policing and a career spent pursuing drug syndicates, Sander broke down as the findings were read into the record.
Campaign organiser Kyle van Reenen said any money raised beyond the replacement of the coffee machine would be directed towards narcotics K9 training initiatives.
The Star