Witness F continues testimony on Sibiya-Motsumi meetings

The Madlanga Commission resumed on Tuesday with evidence leaders pressing Witness F on a growing body of WhatsApp communications that appear to place him squarely at the centre of interactions between Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and Bedfordview businessman Steve Motsumi.

The exchanges, forwarded messages, call logs, and meeting confirmations, formed the core of a tense post-lunch session in which evidence leaders repeatedly accused the witness of evasiveness, contradictory explanations and the unlawful sharing of police information.

The scrutiny began when senior evidence leader and senior counsel Matthew Chaskalson, returned to a peripheral but still-unresolved aspect of Witness F’s testimony: an alleged arms-deal offer by a man he referred to as the nephew of the former deputy president David Mabuza, Siphiwe Mabuza.

But it was the digital footprint that followed, leading to Motsumi and, ultimately, Sibiya, that quickly dominated proceedings.

Witness F initially reiterated that he never tested the shotguns