The alleged plan to buy a police-badged 'grabber' and sell it in eSwatini
On WhatsApp messages dating from January 2023, led on Day 161, Msibi, suspended SAPS sergeant Fannie Nkosi, murder-accused businessman Katiso 'KT' Molefe and security businessman Steve Motsumi allegedly set out to acquire an IMSI catcher - a 'grabber', capable of covertly intercepting cellphone traffic - from a supplier in the Czech Republic, on the representation that the purchaser was the South African Police Service, and then to resell the technology in eSwatini. Chaskalson told the commission: 'The Czech Republic has been told that this is a demonstration for the South African Police Service.' Nkosi is alleged to have applied SAPS stamps to the procurement paperwork. Msibi's own message on the 'Swazi deal' read: 'It's on the table but they have to display. We don't want to become fools.' A related thread involving suppliers in Paris and Hamburg concerned active monitoring systems valued at about R1.16 million. Untested; the living people named are presumed innocent.
An Ekurhuleni transport contract identified months before it was awarded
On 26 April 2023 Msibi sent businessman Zesimdumise 'Ze' Nxumalo the details of a contract for the project management unit and technical services on Ekurhuleni's integrated rapid public transport network, funded by the national Department of Transport. Camp Rock, a company linked to Msibi's interests, subsequently won it. In between, Msibi pressed, 'have you spoken to Jose, please, and the Ekurhuleni issue', and Nxumalo answered, 'please give me until Tuesday, all will be well'; in October 2023 Nxumalo confirmed the submission had reached the bid evaluation committee. Untested; both presumed innocent.
The call to the city manager, and the money the commission will not yet attribute
On 23 September 2023 Steve Motsumi sent Msibi the contact details of Dr Imogen Mashazi, then Ekurhuleni's city manager, and Msibi called her two days later. The commissioners stated expressly that they do not know what was said on that call and cautioned against drawing any inference from it. A separate message about roughly EUR46,256 recorded that someone identified only as 'she' had received about R1 million; Commissioner Sandile Khumalo said on the record, 'we have not established that the she is her', and the commission resolved to obtain the banking records from the South African Reserve Bank rather than argue from the message. Mashazi faces separate, untested criminal charges in the Ekurhuleni matter and is presumed innocent.
A Carrim joint venture the investigators had not previously identified
Day 161 surfaced a link between Msibi's transport operations and a joint venture involving Ziggy Investments, a company of North West businessman Suleiman Carrim, and Transnational Coaches, connected to subsidised bus contracts in Gauteng and the North West. The figures put before the commission were R700,000 paid to the South African National Taxi Council, R300,000 outstanding from North West entities and R1 million paid into Tucofin, a company of which Msibi was a director. Chaskalson told the commission the connection had not previously been identified by investigators. Untested; Carrim is presumed innocent.
Cannabis at Jack Frost Pharmaceuticals before the licence
Photographs, video and chats recovered from Msibi's phone concerned a cannabis growing operation run through Jack Frost Pharmaceuticals in Germiston, which the evidence suggested was already producing before the licence issued on 19 September 2022. 'What we are looking at is production that took place before a licence was issued, or certainly before this licence was issued,' Chaskalson said, adding that investigators were still checking whether an earlier permit existed. The evidence suggested Msibi had been asked to help deter investigations into the company; his precise role was not established. Untested.
Named by Matlala among businessmen linked to alleged syndicates
On Day 160, 17 August 2026, Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala told the commission that he knew three Gauteng businessmen linked to alleged criminal syndicates, and named the late taxi boss Jotham Msibi among them. Matlala claimed the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination on most other questions that day. Untested.