NEWS ANALYSIS: Sibiya’s mask slips during late-night grilling by MPs

After a long day in the witness box on Tuesday, deputy police commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya finally shed some light on the events which led to his suspension from the police and the reason he is under criminal investigation.

It was his second day testifying before parliament’s ad hoc committee formed to probe allegations of collusion with criminal networks levelled by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi against Sibiya and former police minister Senzo Mchunu.

Sibiya was among the “good guys” — as dichotomous illusions go in politics — on the pages of this newspaper back in 2015 when he, along with former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat and then police watchdog head Robert McBride, was relentlessly pursued over the alleged illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals. 

At the time, state capture exploded into full public view.

Sibiya was on the right side of that battle, targeted by former president Jacob Zuma for his pursuit of a key henchman, former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli. Sibiya was subsequently vindicated by the courts and returned to the SAPS as a deputy commissioner — and his career path appeared promising. 

It was surprising then to hear that the top policeman, with 37 years’ experience, was linked to the criminal underworld by Mkhwanazi. This week marked an opportunity to hear his perspective, under oath. 

Mkhwanazi alleged that Sibiya and Mchunu moved to disband the political killings task team because they mistakenly said the team was investigating crime cartels based in Gauteng. This was after the task team had come to Gauteng to assist a police unit in the province on a sensitive case.

Testimony in a separate inquiry, the Madlanga commission, indicated that attempted murder accused and alleged cartel boss Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala had been in contact with a Mchunu ally, Brown Mogotsi, who colluded with Mchunu and Sibiya to ensure that the task team was disbanded.

What emerged in the last two hours before proceedings adjourned was explosive. 

Crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo testified before Madlanga that Matlala was among the “big five” — drug cartels with links to senior politicians, magistrates and high-ranking police officials. 

Sibiya was first up to answer to Mkhwanazi’s accusations and give his side of the story, but it was a frustrating two days as he laboured through questions from evidence leader Norman Arendse and ad hoc committee members.

During examination by Arendse on day one, Sibiya rarely answered questions directly. He paged noisily through his own witness statement and then read large swathes from it.

For the most part, it was frustrating to watch. An anticlimax. This was until ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli began questioning him shortly before 11pm on Tuesday. 

The frustration quickly turned into a revelation. What emerged in the last two hours before proceedings adjourned was explosive. 

It revealed that Sibiya may have lied about a crucial meeting which would have cast doubt on evidence presented by police commissioner Fannie Masemola; that Sibiya was not truthful when he told the committee the 121 dockets crucial to Mkhwanazi’s allegations were not kept in “his office”; and that Sibiya further could not qualify a remark he had made in the committee earlier in his testimony, under oath, alleging that Mkhwanazi was “well funded”.

He denied the existence of the “big five” testified about at the Madlanga commission by Khumalo, and during his testimony it emerged that he was a key figure in a grouping opposed to a “KZN faction” (his words) which included Mkhwanazi and Masemola.

“I made an observation throughout the questions and answers that the general has a habit of steering off... from the question, and when he does that, more time is wasted,” Ntuli said.

“My question was, who is funding him (Mkhwanazi), and for what purpose? Now, you are going off and telling me about how your own reputation... quite frankly... that has nothing to do with my question,” Ntuli said. 

Sibiya shifted in his chair. 

“I cannot here, where I am sitting, say he is funded by so-and-so,” he conceded. 

Regarding the November meeting, he told the committee that in that meeting, Mchunu had first raised concern over the functioning of the political killings task team.

Contradiction

This contradicted testimony by Masemola, who told the committee that Mchunu’s letter ordering the disbandment of the team on December 31 had shocked him because the minister had never raised issues with the team in the past. 

Ntuli asked Sibiya why he did not mention the crucial meeting in his witness statement, when it was pivotal to unravelling the reasons behind disbanding the team. 

After a back-and-forth questioning by Ntuli and Arendse, it became unclear whether the meeting actually happened at all or had happened as Sibiya described it. 

After testifying for almost 20 hours over two days and repeatedly denying that the 121 dockets were kept in his office, Sibiya conceded under Ntuli’s quizzing that the dockets were indeed kept by a subordinate located in his office. 

Sibiya told the committee he did not believe Mchunu had overreached into operational matters by disbanding the task team. This was in direct conflict with evidence presented in the Madlanga Inquiry by SAPS head of legal Petronella van Rooyen and also in conflict with the constitution, DA MP Ian Cameron said in the sitting on Tuesday. 

Through questions from MPs, Sibiya revealed aspirations of becoming either the head of the Hawks or national police commissioner, arguing that the allegations against him were part of a plot to prevent his rise to the top job by his opponents inside the SAPS. 

Given the calibre of policeman revealed during his two-day testimony, it is clear that no elaborate plot is required to prevent this — an ethical and legitimate process would suffice. 

marriann@businesslive.co.za