By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Taxi boss Joe ‘Ferrari’ Sibanyoni has raised concerns about the way evidence has been disclosed to him during the Madlanga commission of Inquiry.
Sibanyoni needs to answer queries about alleged criminal syndicates and his association with Jothan “King Mswazi” Msibi and Steven Motsumi.
“I’ve raised and continue to raise with concern the manner in which we are being drip-fed information from the commission, which information is blatantly in the hands of the commission at the moment.”
“With the understanding that when the same is finally made available, I’ll be expected to keep supplementing my statement,” Sibanyoni told the commission.
According to him, the process had financial consequences because each additional statement required his legal team’s involvement.
“To simply take it for granted that one can and will always bear the cost of lawyers to draft statements in this manner is truly not appropriate and should not be encouraged by this commission.”
Sibanyoni argued that he had warned the commission in advance that his initial statement would be “incomplete” due to lack of access to the relevant evidence, adding that to provide testimony in “drips and drabs defeats the process entirely”.
The taxi boss claimed his attorneys received more than 2 000 pages of documents on 4 September, 18 days after the deadline for his initial statement.
He testified that being required to make submissions before receiving the commission’s own evidence created an unfair sequence in the proceedings.
“This chronological inversion requiring me to file my statements before receiving the commission’s own evidence constitutes a fundamental procedural unfairness, which I have since formally recorded.”
Sibanyoni also questioned the commission’s line of questioning concerning the Moloto Road and Evergreen Bus contracts.
The inquiry is probing the contracts amid allegations of tender fraud, but the businessman maintained that these issues were essentially “commercial and administrative” matters outside of the commission’s mandate.
He consequently declined to respond to several allegations, citing his right to remain silent and constitutional protection against self-incrimination.
The taxi boss also confirmed that his sister works for Gubis 85, a private security company with which he has a formal business relationship.
Sibanyoni described himself as a client of the company and maintained that he does not have exclusive control over its operations or responsibility for the actions of those associated with it.
Despite this, Sibanyoni described Gubis 85 founder and director, Calvin Mahlangu, as his “homeboy”.
He said he had used the company for personal security and that a taxi association previously covered the cost of his security detail.
He also dismissed any suggestion that his sister’s employment at Gubis 85, on its own, points to wrongdoing.
Gubis 85 has featured prominently in evidence before the Commission in relation to a City of Tshwane security tender and alleged irregular ad hoc security payments.
the Commission has given Sibanyoni’s legal team additional time to familiarise itself with documents ahead of his cross-examination.
A date for his return to the witness stand has not yet been announced.
The commission has also ordered Bafana Sindane’s legal team to submit an application by midnight seeking a postponement of his testimony, with Sindane subpoenaed to appear before the commission on Wednesday.