By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
Deputy police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya took the stand at the Parliament ad hoc committee on Monday, 13 October 2025.
Sibiya’s name has cropped up several times in two hearings — an ad hoc Parliamentary hearing and the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry — that are investigating accusations first made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi about three months ago.
Mkhwanazi held a press conference on 6 July 2025 during which he made several high-level accusations, including that a drug trafficking cartel had infiltrated policing and politics in South Africa.
Other allegations he made included that Sibiya played a role in trying to disband KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
It was subsequently alleged that the plans to disband the task team were made to effectively protect criminal suspects.
Sibiya denied any wrongdoing, but was suspended.
Before his testimony began, there was a formal objection to the participation of two members he said are complainants in criminal cases against him.
“I’m advised that I will proceed, but I must indicate that I do so under protest because I will be participating in a process that could be tainted,” Sibiya said, after consulting his legal team, having argued that the MPs in question should recuse themselves.
After brief deliberations off camera, the committee decided Sibiya should continue with his testimony. His conflict complaint will be discussed in the ad hoc committee’s meeting on Wednesday after consultation with the speaker of parliament.
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Lisa-Maree Schickerling laid a charge against Sibiya and Mchunu in July, after Mkhwanazi’s testimony about the alleged illegal transfer of the 121 documents. The case alleges the pair committed fraud and contravened parliamentary rules by lying about their relationship with North West businessman and former ANC member Brown Mogotsi.
uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party MP David Skosana also opened a case against Sibiya — of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence through the alleged unlawful redirection of case dockets. MK claims Sibiya “defeated the ends of justice”, and possibly committed fraud or forgery, if the letter for the disbandment of the political killings task team was unauthorised or falsified.
Sibiya’s lawyers said the search warrant executed at his home last week referred to Schickerling and Skosana’s court filings as justification for the warrant.
The DA replaced Schickerling with an alternate member.
However, the MK party refused to follow suit, arguing that Skosana had not opened the case in his personal capacity but as a representative of the party.
Evidence leader Norman Arendse asked Sibiya about WhatsApp messages presented by Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo at the Madlanga commission, in which Brown Mogotsi assured Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala that Sibiya was involved in disbanding the task team.
‘This is a discussion between two people that does involve me. I’m not part of this discussion where my name appears between these two people,” Sibiya said.
Sibiya denied any involvement with Matlala, as alleged by Mogotsi in the WhatsApp exchanges, saying he doubted the authenticity of the messages.
He said he had listened to Matlala’s bail application, during which his lawyers claimed his phones had been taken to a private company and tampered with, with messages removed and inserted.
Arendse asked whether Sibiya disputed the authenticity of the texts provided by Khumalo. “Not disputing but I doubt,” said Sibiya, adding that the individual who recovered the texts should be called to testify before the ad hoc committee.
Asked whether he knew Mogotsi, Sibiya said he knew him as an “activist” and had met him twice. He said Mogotsi contacted him to warn of a potential attack by members of the intelligence community and that they met to discuss information Sibiya said he already knew.
Sibiya said, on one occasion, he met Mogotsi in Cape Town, during the ANC’s 8 January anniversary celebrations. He said he was there on official duty as a police officer.
He added that Mogotsi called him shortly after their meeting to say he had forgotten to pay his restaurant bill. Sibiya said he did not settle the bill because he did not know Mogotsi well.
Sibiya also testified that he knew Matlala as a service provider for the South African Police Service (SAPS) and had spoken briefly with him over the phone when Matlala requested a meeting.
“He is well known in the SAPS because he was, at the time, running a hospital of the SAPS at the college,” said Sibiya.
He added that he had met Matlala with his attorney when they visited his office to lodge a complaint about a tender dispute involving a leased building. Sibiya said he agreed to look into the matter and that was the extent of their interaction.
Sibiya, who was appointed by national police commissioner Fannie Masemola in 2023 when Bheki Cele was police minister, said the police structure empowered him, as deputy national commissioner, to act on behalf of the commissioner — including drafting the letter that removed the 121 dockets, which Masemola did not sign off on.
Sibiya said that due to a “weird arrangement”, the political killings task team, established in 2018, was placed under Mkhwanazi and Khumalo when it should have fallen under his department. He argued that the task team should have been under detectives, which is his responsibility.
Sibiya argued there were many task teams “all over the country” which “are not properly monitored nor controlled”, but have access to large budgets, including the political killings one.
“This committee must request for an audit for the overtime claimed by members of this task team since its establishment,” said Sibiya.
He said the task team had a budget of R500 million while he was struggling with limited resources for areas like Westbury, Eldorado Park and Hannover Park, where he received daily videos of shootings.
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Video Courtesy of Parliament.