A KwaMhlanga taxi owner, known in the industry as 'King of the Sky' for his helicopters and his cars, and the second man from the Mpumalanga taxi strand that this commission has called to answer for himself. Per eNCA he was served with a Rule 10.6 notice in August 2026 at the same time as Madoda 'Joe Ferrari' Sibanyoni, requiring him to answer questions about criminal syndicates and associates, including the syndicate the record calls the Kwagga 20, said to operate around KwaMhlanga and Siyabuswa. He is also Sibanyoni's co-accused in a criminal case: per Sowetan and the African News Agency, he, Sibanyoni, Mvimbi Daniel Masilela and Philemon Msiza are accused of forcing a mining businessman in Mpumalanga's Nkangala district to pay more than R2 million in protection fees between 2022 and 2025, and he faces money laundering charges linked to the alleged proceeds. He handed himself over at Kwaggafontein police station and is out on bail. The commission set his evidence down for Wednesday 23 September 2026. His counsel, Advocate Mpati Qofa, who also acts for Sibanyoni, told the chairperson his team was booked at the Khampepe Commission and undertook to file an application to move the date; per Sowetan the chairperson directed that the application be filed by midnight and that Sindane attend on Wednesday regardless, because the application might not be granted. He did not appear on that Wednesday. Day 178 went instead to an application by a different counsel, Advocate Thabani Masuku, to postpone his evidence on three grounds: a medical certificate for uncontrolled hypertension, a period of sacred spiritual seclusion, and an urgent High Court application filed the night before in Pretoria to set aside the subpoena and stop the commission using WhatsApp messages taken off his phone, set down for 6 October 2026. Chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC did not dispute the certificate but opposed the rest and asked to lead the documentary evidence in his absence; per SABC News the chairperson reserved his ruling to Friday 25 September 2026, and the subpoena stands in the meantime. Nothing on this page is a finding. He has not given evidence to this commission, he denies the criminal charges, no court has convicted him of anything, and he is presumed innocent.
Bafana SindaneKing of the SkyOupa Bafana SindaneKwaMhlangataxi industryKwagga 20Madlanga Commission
This profile summarises testimony and evidence given on the public record before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. It restates allegations as presented at the hearings and is not a finding of guilt, liability, or wrongdoing by any person.
Awaiting appearanceNo portrait on the public record yet
Their role
What the record says
Why the commission called him: a Rule 10.6 notice about syndicates and associates
Per eNCA, on 13 August 2026 the commission served Rule 10.6 notices on both Sindane and Joe 'Ferrari' Sibanyoni. A Rule 10.6 notice is not a charge and not a finding: it tells a person that evidence before the commission may implicate them and requires them to answer it. What the commission wants from Sindane, per eNCA and the African News Agency, is an account of alleged criminal syndicates and associations in the transport sector, including the grouping the record calls the Kwagga 20, said to operate in the KwaMhlanga and Siyabuswa areas. Sibanyoni took the stand on that notice on Day 169 and again on Day 177 and rejected the allegations against him. Sindane has not yet answered his, and the allegations he has been called to answer are untested.
The Delmas extortion and money laundering case, and his answer to it
Separately from this commission, Sindane is one of four accused in a criminal matter that began at the Kwaggafontein Magistrate's Court and now runs at Delmas. Per Sowetan, the African News Agency and Sunday World, he, Joe 'Ferrari' Sibanyoni, Mvimbi Daniel Masilela and Philemon Msiza are accused of forcing a mining businessman in Mpumalanga's Nkangala district to pay unlawful protection fees of more than R2 million between 2022 and 2025; the figure is put at about R2.2 million. Sindane is additionally charged with money laundering said to involve the proceeds. Per the African News Agency he handed himself over at Kwaggafontein police station and was granted bail. Per EWN the matter was postponed by the Delmas Magistrates Court to 20 October 2026 after the defence said it had still not received the final docket or charge sheet. All four accused deny the charges. A charge is an allegation the state must prove; none of it has been proved, and every accused is presumed innocent.
The date the commission set, and the application to move it (22 September 2026)
The commission did not sit on Tuesday 22 September 2026. Per Sowetan and the African News Agency, when Sibanyoni's continued questioning was postponed on Monday 21 September, his counsel Advocate Mpati Qofa told the chairperson he was unavailable from Tuesday and through the following week because his team was booked at the Khampepe Commission: 'We were booked as far as February for the Khampepe commission.' Qofa acts for Sindane too, and undertook to file an application to postpone Sindane's evidence before midnight. Per Sowetan and the African News Agency the chairperson, Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, replied: 'The application must be filed by midnight on Monday... Sindane must also be present on Wednesday because you never know whether the application could be granted or not.' Per EWN the commission resumes on Wednesday 23 September with a witness linked to Sibanyoni. Whether Sindane gives evidence on that day, or the application succeeds, was not known at the time of publication.
Day 178: the subpoena, the certificate, the seclusion and the High Court (23 September 2026)
The commission sat on Wednesday 23 September 2026 to take his evidence and he was not there. Per Eyewitness News, SABC News, IOL and The Citizen his counsel, Advocate Thabani Masuku, applied to postpone on three grounds. First, health: a medical certificate was submitted that morning, the condition put up was uncontrolled hypertension, and per Eyewitness News and IOL Masuku's point was participation rather than mere illness, 'The issue is whether in his current condition he's able to follow, even if you were to flight his evidence, he's able to follow what is going on.' Per Inside Politics the certificate anticipates a return on 28 September. Second, a period of sacred spiritual seclusion, described per IOL as culturally significant and inseparable from his identity, and per The Citizen deliberately kept out of the founding affidavit so that it would not be picked over in public. Third, an urgent application filed in the High Court in Pretoria on the Tuesday night which, per Eyewitness News and IOL, asks that the subpoena be set aside and that the commission be stopped from using WhatsApp messages taken off his phone; it is set down for 6 October 2026. Per Eyewitness News the commission confirmed receipt through spokesperson Jeremy Michaels, said it would respond within the relevant timelines, and made clear the subpoena had not been set aside. Chief evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC did not challenge the certificate, but per SABC News and IOL he opposed the rest, called the timing of the court application self-created urgency, said a pending court case is not on its own a ground to stop a commission, and asked to lead the documentary evidence in Sindane's absence with admissibility reserved. Masuku resisted that, per The Citizen and Inside Politics, on the basis that putting private communications up provisionally is still publication and that a man in bed cannot contextualise them. Per SABC News the chairperson reserved his ruling to Friday 25 September 2026. None of this decides anything about the allegations. He has answered none of them, and he is presumed innocent.