The Madlanga commission of inquiry has postponed the testimony of Witness F, a police officer working closely with deputy commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, to March 16 due to being in hospital.
The witness, whose name is being withheld for safety reasons, had started testifying on the first week of the month but asked for a halt in the proceedings citing ill health.
Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson told the commission on Monday morning the witness has since been hospitalised and would be available to testify after February 25.
The only available day for his testimony was the last day of the hearings, March 16. Commission chair justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga granted the postponement to March 16.
Earlier this month the witness had initiated an application at the high court in Pretoria seeking to interdict the subpoena to appear before the commission. He also wanted the commission to be restricted from exhibiting WhatsApp chats retrieved from his phone pending finalisation of complaints they had. His attorney, Hartley Ngoato, withdrew the application on February 6.
Witness F previously testified Sibiya pressured Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala to amend an affidavit before court in which the attempted murder accused’s statement suggests they had a close relationship.
Witness F also told the commission he assisted in attempting to conceal details about Sibiya’s relationship with Matlala when a journalist inquired about it in December 2024.
Other witnesses before the commission have also testified that Matlala gave Sibiya large sums of money after he assisted Matlala’s Medicare24 company with a R360m tender for the police service.
Witness F also told the commission, which is investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in the justice system, Matlala told him he went to the South African Police Service (SAPS) head office to meet national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola.
“Matlala would tell me that ‘I am coming to the office, but I am not coming to Sgqoko [Sibiya]. I am coming to the national commissioner.’ That is now Gen Fannie Masemola, or ‘I am coming to Gen [Richard] Shibiri’, or ‘I am coming to Gen Fannie’. That is how I learnt to know that Matlala has access to most of the generals in head office, other than Gen Sibiya,” the witness said.
Masemola, speaking to Business Day, said the claim is false.
“No, I have never met the man [Matlala]. I do not know the man. I have never met him. Unless maybe I met him in the streets and he greeted me. It is false. That is false and a lie.”
Matlala faces allegations of bankrolling officers.
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