Taxi owner; president, South African Local and Long Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation · Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga
Testified · part-heard · charged
One of the largest operators in the South African minibus taxi industry, and for the past year one of the names this commission has heard about without hearing from. He entered the industry as a driver in 1985, bought his first taxi in 1995, and now runs a fleet of roughly 400 vehicles across Gauteng and Mpumalanga; he is president of the South African Local and Long Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation and a former Santaco provincial chairman and deputy president. Suspended Sergeant Fannie Nkosi told the commission that Sibanyoni was one of a 'group of five' businessmen, and investigators have alleged that the syndicate Crime Intelligence calls the Big Five manipulates police investigations and controls taxi routes through violence and extortion. Sibanyoni rejects that. Testifying under a Rule 10.6 notice on 28 August 2026 (Day 169), he told the commission he was the network's target rather than its member: that gunmen shot him in 2006 and again in August 2022, that the late taxi mogul Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi was behind the threat against him, that Msibi's death in January 2024 brought relief, and that he had asked then Police Minister Bheki Cele for an inquiry into a cartel with roots inside the police and been refused. He is the state's first witness in the attempted murder trial arising from the August 2022 shooting, in which Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala and four co-accused have pleaded not guilty. Separately, he was arrested on 12 May 2026 and faces extortion and two counts of money laundering over an alleged R2.2 million in protection fees demanded from a mining businessman between 2022 and 2025; he denies those charges. He read his statement into the record without completing his evidence and cross-examination was set down for 21 September 2026. Nothing on this page is a finding, every allegation both by and against him is untested, and everyone named is presumed innocent.
Joe SibanyoniJoe Ferrari SibanyoniMadoda Johannes SibanyoniFerraritaxi industrySALLDTBOSantacoBig FiveMadlanga 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
Named as one of a 'group of five' businessmen, and his answer (Day 169)
The allegation Sibanyoni was subpoenaed to answer is that he is one of the businessmen in the syndicate Crime Intelligence calls the Big Five - a network alleged before this commission to manipulate police investigations, control taxi routes by violence, and extract money by extortion. Per EWN the link was made by suspended Sergeant Fannie Nkosi, who tied Sibanyoni to a 'group of five' businessmen, and the late Jotham Msibi is said to have asked Nkosi to investigate Sibanyoni's connection to taxi violence. Answering it on Day 169, Sibanyoni inverted the frame: he told the commission he was not a member of the network but its target, and that he had been reporting it to the police for years. He was reading a prepared statement and was not cross-examined. The allegation is untested, his answer is untested, and he is presumed innocent.
Two shootings, in 2006 and August 2022 (Day 169)
Sibanyoni told the commission that gunmen opened fire on him in 2006 and again in August 2022, and put the attacks at the centre of his account of himself: 'When gunmen opened fire upon me in 2006 and again in August 2022, it was not merely a man they shot; it was a husband and a father.' The second attack is the subject of a live prosecution rather than only of his testimony. Per the Daily Maverick and News24 the shooting happened on 10 August 2022 at the Centurion Golf and Country Club estate, shots were fired from a white BMW, and Sibanyoni was struck twice in the stomach. Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, his wife Tsakane Matlala and three co-accused have pleaded not guilty to 25 charges including eleven counts of attempted murder; the trial began on 21 July 2026 and Sibanyoni is the state's first witness. All of the accused deny the charges and are presumed innocent.
What he alleges about the late Jotham Msibi (Day 169)
Sibanyoni named the late taxi mogul Jotham 'King Mswazi' Msibi as the source of the threat against him. He told the commission that the two had agreed to retire from the industry at 60 and that Msibi later told him 'we die in the business', which he understood as a threat; that when he confronted Msibi about the 2006 shooting, Msibi did not deny it but instead 'surrounded himself with individuals known in the taxi industry in the criminal connotation of the term Izinkabi', the isiZulu term for contract killers; and that the association between Msibi and both Katiso 'KT' Molefe and Vusimuzi Matlala left him fearing for his life. Per EWN he said Msibi's death in January 2024 brought relief because 'the source of the threat and so much suffering directed at me was gone', and that he was afterwards voted Msibi's successor as president of the taxi body. Msibi died in January 2024 and cannot answer any of this. It is one witness's untested account of a dead man's conduct.
The claim that two musicians were attacked because of him (Day 169)
Sibanyoni told the commission that the murder of Oupa 'DJ Sumbody' Sefoka, shot dead with an AK-47 in Woodmead, Johannesburg on 20 November 2022 together with two bodyguards, and the 2024 attempt on the life of Seunkie 'DJ Vettys' Mokubung, were attacks on people close to him rather than on the musicians themselves. Per EWN he said: 'The attempted life of DJ Vettys, and Mr Sefoka being killed, it was a matter of people that are close to me', and confirmed it when it was put back to him. He said he knew Mokubung socially and knew Sefoka through Sefoka's father, a member of the Pretoria Mabopane Petersburg Taxi Association whom he had known for about thirty years. The rifle used to kill Sefoka has been ballistically linked by the state to a series of other cases, including the attempt on Sibanyoni's own life. A shared weapon establishes a shared armoury or shared shooters; it does not by itself establish a shared motive. The claim is untested.
The warning he says he took to the police minister (Day 169)
Sibanyoni told the commission he did not stay silent about what he says he knew. Per EWN he approached then Police Minister Bheki Cele and asked for an inquiry into a cartel he says was killing taxi operators across Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal with the involvement of officials inside the South African Police Service, and the request was refused. The archive does not publish the words attributed to Cele's reply, which so far rest on a single aggregator and social posts rather than on two independent outlets or the commission's own record. Cele has not answered this account before the commission. It is untested.
Charged with extortion and money laundering; he denies it
Separately from the commission, Sibanyoni was arrested in Mpumalanga on 12 May 2026 with co-accused Mvimbi Masilela and Philemon Msiza. Per the Daily Maverick and TimesLIVE the state alleges that between 2022 and 2025 they unlawfully demanded more than R2.2 million in protection fees from a mining businessman, threatening to shut down his operations, and the charges are extortion and two counts of money laundering. He appeared in the Kwaggafontein Magistrates Court on 13 May 2026 and is represented by former National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Shaun Abrahams. Nothing in that case has been tried. He denies the charges and is presumed innocent.
“I do not regard my survival of two assassination attempts as mere fortune. I regard it as providence.”
Joe 'Ferrari' Sibanyoni to the Madlanga Commission (Day 169, 28 August 2026), per SABC News, on the shootings he says he survived in 2006 and in August 2022. The allegation that he is part of the alleged Big Five syndicate is untested and he denies it.