By Johnathan Paoli
Suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection, Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, has launched a counterattack against KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, accusing him of “misleading the nation” over the fate of sensitive dockets from the disbanded Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
Sibiya, appearing before Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating corruption within the criminal justice system, said late on Monday night that Mkhwanazi’s claim that critical case files were “gathering dust” in Pretoria was “false, inflammatory, and calculated to create public outrage”.
“The public was told that I had taken over active investigations and locked them away. That was a lie. These were long-dormant dockets, some from as far back as 2018, that were already inactive when I was assigned oversight,” Sibiya said.
The feud between the two senior officers has erupted into one of the most serious public disputes within the South African Police Service (SAPS) in years.
Mkhwanazi, in previous testimony, accused Sibiya and suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu of being part of a corrupt network protecting politically connected underworld figures.
But Sibiya painted a very different picture, insisting that Mkhwanazi had launched a deliberate smear campaign to deflect from his own internal controversies.
According to Sibiya, the PKTT had already ceased operations before his office became involved.
“When the task team was shut down, we reviewed all the remaining case files. Many were dormant because key witnesses had either died, gone missing, or withdrawn statements,” he said.
The hearing turned tense as committee members pressed for documentary proof of Sibiya’s claims.
He promised to submit written correspondence and docket logs showing that the cases in question had been inactive since 2023.
“Let us not forget that the PKTT was disbanded due to corruption and operational misconduct. We cannot now pretend that its collapse was a mystery,” he said.
Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane intervened several times to calm exchanges between MPs from rival parties, reminding them that the inquiry’s purpose was “to uncover systemic failings, not to adjudicate personalities”.
The PKTT was originally established in 2018 to investigate a surge of assassinations and killings, mostly involving internal ANC feuds.
Sibiya said the disbandment was “a painful but necessary decision” to root out corruption.
“Some people were using the PKTT to enrich themselves and settle political scores. When we closed it down, those benefiting from it turned their anger on me,” he said.
Despite the bruising exchanges, Sibiya told MPs he remains committed to rebuilding SAPS credibility.
The committee is set to continue on Tuesday at 10am.
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