Hearing record
Day 53
With his interdict refused, 'Witness F' faced cross-examination on Wednesday, 4 February 2026. Evidence showed the Gauteng Organised Crime member sharing dockets and confidential police intelligence with alleged cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and a private security boss, and he confirmed brokering the delivery of impala bucks to suspended deputy commissioner Shadrack Sibiya's property. He also claimed police were under political pressure to arrest entertainment blogger Musa Khawula.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Evidence was led showing Witness F sharing dockets and confidential police intelligence with alleged cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and private security company owner Steven Motsumi.
- The docket shared with Motsumi related to a cash-in-transit investigation Witness F said he had worked on for more than three years.
- Witness F confirmed he facilitated communication between Matlala and suspended deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya over the delivery of impala bucks - reported as 290 - as a gift for Sibiya's property.
- He claimed police were under political pressure to arrest entertainment blogger Musa Khawula.
- Co-commissioner advocate Sesi Baloyi voiced disquiet at officers passing sensitive case material to people under investigation.
- The testimony was later interrupted: on 16 February the commission postponed Witness F's evidence to March after he reported being admitted to hospital.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
Dockets in the wrong hands
Cross-examination placed on the record that Witness F had shared dockets and confidential police intelligence with alleged cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and private security company owner Steven Motsumi. According to the evidence, the material passed to Motsumi concerned a cash-in-transit investigation the witness had run for over three years. Co-commissioner advocate Sesi Baloyi remarked that many South Africans would not sleep easy knowing police officers shared such material with outsiders.
Impala bucks and political pressure
Witness F confirmed he had facilitated communication between Matlala and suspended deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya about the delivery of impala bucks to Sibiya's property, reported as a gift of 290 animals. He also told the commission that police had been under political pressure to arrest entertainment blogger Musa Khawula, adding a political dimension to the account of how cases were handled.
Our analysis
The bottom line
If the WhatsApp trail led on Day 53 holds up under scrutiny, it sketches a disturbing picture of how the boundary between the police and the people they are meant to investigate can dissolve. Sharing a live docket with a private security operator, or brokering gifts between an alleged cartel figure and a senior commissioner, is not a lapse of etiquette; it is the kind of conduct that lets investigations be steered, stalled or sold. The impala-buck detail is almost comic until you see it for what the evidence suggests it is: a currency of access.
Two cautions belong in the same breath. Everyone named through this testimony - Matlala, Sibiya, Motsumi and Witness F himself - is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and none of this has been tested to a finding; Witness F is a self-interested insider whose account carries obvious motives to shade blame. His later hospitalisation and the postponement to March mean the cross-examination that would test him was left unfinished. The claim of political pressure to arrest Musa Khawula is his assertion, not a proven fact, and should be read as a lead the commission must still verify rather than a conclusion.
Taken together, Days 50 to 53 show the commission moving from a procedural skirmish to its central subject: the alleged capture of policing by private and political interests. The value of the record is precisely that these claims are now made in public, on oath, where they can be interrogated - which is a different and more durable thing than proof.
Analysis is the archive’s own comment on the public proceedings, grounded in the record above. It weighs the evidence and the process; questions of individual guilt are for the courts and the commission to decide. Everyone named is presumed innocent.
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Counsel, the panel and sources
On the panel
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)
- Advocate Sesi Baloyi