By Johnathan Paoli
Taxi boss Johannes “Joe Ferrari” Sibanyoni has told the Madlanga Commission that he confronted his former ally, the since-deceased Jotham “Mswazi” Msibi, over an attempt on his life, a confrontation he said ultimately destroyed their relationship and left him fearing he would be targeted again.
Appearing before the commission on Friday, Sibanyoni said he believed Msibi had sent people to kill him in an assassination attempt in the mid-2000s.
“The attempt was not casual. It was targeted. It succeeded in wounding me, and it succeeded in forcing me out of the industry for approximately two years, during which period I removed myself from the taxi environment in order to survive,” Sibanyoni said.
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He later returned to the industry and said his decision to flee after the attack was inconsistent with allegations that he had operated as a protected criminal power broker.
“A person who is protected does not need to hide. A person who is powerful does not need to flee,” he said.
Despite Sibanyoni’s belief that Msibi had been behind the earlier attack, the two men subsequently developed what he described as a friendship and working relationship.
Sibanyoni said they had agreed that both would retire from the taxi industry at the age of 60, with him eventually succeeding Msibi.
But he said the arrangement began to collapse around 2019 when Msibi approached 60 and told him the agreement was no longer operative.
According to Sibanyoni, Msibi said “this is taxi business, we die working”.
Sibanyoni told the commission he regarded the remark as threatening because of his belief that Msibi had previously sent people to kill him.
He said he later used the Covid-19 lockdown as an opportunity to distance himself from Msibi, whom he accused of stripping him of his responsibilities within their organisation.
When Msibi confronted him over his withdrawal, Sibanyoni said he directly raised the earlier assassination attempt.
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He said Msibi reacted angrily and ordered him to remove his taxis from the rank, effectively bringing their relationship to an end.
Sibanyoni alleged that Msibi then strengthened his security operation and surrounded himself with people known in the taxi industry as “izinkabi”, or hired assassins.
“Among those whom Mr Msibi engaged for this purpose were Mr Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala and Mr Katiso Molefe,” Sibanyoni said.
He said the development convinced him that his life was in imminent danger.
Sibanyoni was targeted again on 10 August 2022, when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle and shot him twice.
He linked that attempted assassination in subsequent criminal proceedings to Matlala, who is facing charges in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg over the shooting.
Sibanyoni declined to give the commission a comprehensive account of the 2022 attack because the criminal case remains pending.
He did, however, refer to ballistic evidence arising from the investigation which linked firearms associated with the attack to a number of other serious crimes, including the murder of musician and businessman Oupa John Sefoka, known as DJ Sumbody.
Sibanyoni also told the commission that he had tried to raise concerns about alleged cartel activity and senior police involvement with then-police minister Bheki Cele in May 2022, three months before the second attempt on his life.
He said his warnings did not result in the institutional response he expected.
Sibanyoni said that he was not alleging a causal connection between his approach to Cele and the August attack, but said the commission should consider the chronology.
His testimony also dealt with what he said were structural drivers of violence within the taxi industry.
Sibanyoni described “bucket money” as unaccounted daily or weekly funds collected from drivers by taxi association executives.
He said the money could be used to finance security companies and, according to findings of the Gauteng Commission of Inquiry into Minibus Taxi-Type Service Violence, Fatalities and Instability, known as the Shongwe Commission, payments to hitmen.
“In some instances, payment takes the form not of money but of being allowed to operate on certain routes, a practice that itself generates further violence,” Sibanyoni said.
He also described “imali yesokisi”, or “sock money”, under which drivers are given daily targets and only begin earning for themselves once those targets have been reached.
Sibanyoni said practices such as these contributed to an environment in which violence became embedded in competition within parts of the industry.
“They create an environment in which violence is not an aberration but a foreseeable and recurring feature of economic competition,” he said.
The commission continues.
