Hearing record
Day 62
Witness: Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya
Suspended SAPS Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya opens a scheduled four-day appearance, facing allegations that he interfered in police work and helped weaken the Political Killings Task Team. He rejects the claims, casting the proceedings as a witch-hunt.
The day in brief
What you need to know
- Day one of Sibiya's scheduled four-day testimony at the Brigette Mabandla Judicial College in Pretoria; the appearance would ultimately stretch beyond the original schedule.
- Sibiya is the suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Police for Crime Detection, one of the most senior officers implicated in the evidence heard by the commission.
- He arrives to answer a cluster of allegations: interference in police operations, alleged links to criminal networks, and his role in the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
- Sibiya positions himself as the target of a witch-hunt and rejects the claims made against him by earlier witnesses.
- Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi had named Sibiya among senior officers he alleged interfered with investigations, setting up a direct clash of accounts.
- The commission signalled that Sibiya would be tested against the documentary record and the conflicting testimony already on file, rather than his narrative alone.
- All persons named remain presumed innocent; the commission reports the record and does not pronounce guilt.
Full coverage
The day, in depth
A senior officer takes the stand
Suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya began what was billed as a four-day appearance before the Madlanga Commission. Multiple earlier witnesses had implicated him in wrongdoing and in alleged collaboration with criminal cartels, making his testimony one of the most anticipated of the inquiry.
Sibiya frames the inquiry
According to reporting on his appearance, Sibiya rejected the allegations against him and characterised the proceedings as a witch-hunt. He signalled that he would defend his conduct in office and dispute the accounts given by officers who had testified before him.
Our analysis
The bottom line
Sibiya's arrival marked a pivot in the commission's arc. For weeks the inquiry had built its picture of interference and cartel infiltration largely through the testimony of officers describing the conduct of others; now one of the most senior of those named officers was in the chair to answer in his own words. The stakes were correspondingly high, because Sibiya sat close to the top of the chain of command whose integrity the commission was established to examine.
By framing the process as a witch-hunt at the outset, Sibiya set the terms of his own defence: that the case against him rested on the say-so of adversaries rather than on hard proof. That is a legitimate line for a witness who denies wrongdoing, and the presumption of innocence remains firmly with him. It also, however, raised the test he would have to meet over the coming days, because the commission had already flagged that his account would be measured against documents and against the testimony of others rather than accepted at face value.
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.
On the record
Who testified this day
Follow the threads
Who Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya connects to
Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi
Mkhwanazi named Sibiya among the senior officers he alleged interfered with investigations.
View profile →Co-named over the disbandmentSenzo Mchunu
Both were named in connection with the weakening of the political killings task team.
View profile →Distinct person, same surnameLieutenant Colonel Kwazikwakhe Sibiya
Not to be confused with Brigadier Kwazikwakhe Sibiya, a junior officer witness in the R200m cocaine matter - a different person.
View profile →Distinct person, similar surnameMajor-General Richard Shibiri
Often confused: Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya (suspended deputy national commissioner) is not Maj-Gen Richard Shibiri (dismissed Organised Crime head) - different people, different surnames.
View profile →Zoom out
Related case files
Medicare24 SAPS tender
A R360 million police medical tender, about R228 million paid, a web of alleged funders - and a central accused who pleaded guilty, then withdrew the deal and now heads to trial.
Read the case file →Case file - Political interferenceKhan-Malema-Sayed network
A crime intelligence general, a cigarette businessman, and a political leader - the Nyatlo affidavit traces an alleged network of mutual protection spanning police contracts, parliamentary questions, and a private complainant's home address.
Read the case file →In the room & on the record
Counsel, the panel and sources
On the panel
- Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)