By Johnathan Paoli
Suspended SAPS Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya is expected to return to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday, as scrutiny intensifies around allegations that senior police leadership interfered with sensitive investigations and maintained improper relationships with politically connected individuals.
Sibiya’s testimony comes after months of damaging evidence from multiple witnesses who have placed him at the centre of decisions that allegedly weakened key investigations, including those into politically motivated killings in KwaZulu-Natal.
His return follows earlier postponements, including an absence late last year due to illness, and comes amid sustained public and political pressure for accountability at the highest levels of the SAPS.
Central to the case against Sibiya are allegations that he played a decisive role in the disbandment or effective neutralisation of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), a specialised unit established to investigate political assassinations, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.
Evidence before the Commission and Parliament’s ad-hoc committee has suggested that 121 sensitive case dockets were removed from the task team and transferred to SAPS national headquarters in Pretoria under Sibiya’s authority.
Witnesses have alleged that the dockets subsequently stalled, with little investigative progress made for extended periods.
Some have argued that the move disrupted active investigations into politically connected violence at a critical stage, while supporters of the task team have described the decision as a major setback in efforts to address impunity in a province long plagued by political killings.
The commission has also heard testimony linking Sibiya to controversial businessman Brown Mogotsi, who witnesses have described as a politically connected intermediary with apparent insight into internal police decisions.
Evidence placed on record suggests Mogotsi appeared to have advance knowledge of policing developments, including the fate of the task team, sometimes before senior provincial commanders were formally informed.
Additional serious allegations have emerged in relation to businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, whose companies previously secured lucrative SAPS contracts that were later cancelled.
Witness C previously told the commission that Matlala claimed to have provided Sibiya with large sums of cash, livestock and other benefits in exchange for protection or influence within SAPS.
Sibiya’s name entered the public spotlight following explosive public allegations in mid-2025 by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who claimed that criminal syndicates had penetrated senior SAPS leadership and that political interference had compromised key investigations.
The fallout has exposed deep divisions within SAPS leadership, with competing accounts of whether decisions taken at national level were lawful command interventions or deliberate efforts to derail sensitive cases.
Sibiya has consistently denied all allegations of corruption, interference or criminal association.
In earlier appearances before Parliament, he described himself as a career police officer of more than three decades who had “never been a rogue cop”.
He has maintained that the PKTT had fulfilled its mandate and was operating outside proper structures, arguing that the transfer of dockets was an administrative decision rather than an attempt to undermine investigations.
Sibiya has acknowledged limited contact with Mogotsi and Matlala but insists these interactions were incidental or related to official matters, not corrupt dealings.
INSIDE POLITICS