Sibiya's testimony looms in parliamentary inquiry after electronic devices seized

Deputy police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya will take the stand on Monday in the parliamentary inquiry that is probing the allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system.

This comes after Sibiya was implicated in the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) earlier this week when KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, and national commissioner General Fannie Masemola gave their testimonies.

Ad Hoc Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane said on Friday the public hearings will resume on Monday with Sibiya as a witness.

“Next week Monday and Tuesday, we have a date with General Sibiya,” Lekganyane said.

The inquiry has heard that Sibiya allegedly went ahead with plans to disband the PKTT despite being advised not to do so by Masemola, who had concerns with the directive issued by now-suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu in December 2024.

Sibiya had allegedly ordered for the dockets removal from KwaZulu-Natal to the police head offices without the knowledge of the national commissioner.

Monday’s testimony in the inquiry will take place against the backdrop of search and seizure warrants executed by the police to obtain electronic devices including laptops and cellphones at Sibiya’s house and the flat of Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedrick Nkabinde.

Both have condemned the seizure of their electronic equipment, with Nkabinde claiming his brother was assaulted after the police mistook his brother for Nkabinde.

The team was stopped at the gate of Mchunu's residence and was refused entry by the police providing guarding services there, prompting the minister’s lawyers to write to the Ad Hoc Committee.

Mchunu’s lawyers said the actions of the police was concerning as Mchunu and Nkabinde were the subject of the testimony tendered by Mkhwanazi in the parliamentary inquiry and Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

They noted that Mkhwanazi claimed to possess evidence of Mchunu's wrongdoing and characterised the PKTT's actions as intimidation and a fishing expedition designed to support Mkhwanazi's allegations.

“This conduct is unacceptable as it compromises the investigation that is currently conducted by the Ad Hoc Committee. Our client simply does not know or has no way of knowing what may happen to the mobile phones that the police want to seize,” reads the letter.

Masemola confirmed to the parliamentary inquiry that he was informed about the PKTT team executing a search and seizure warrant to collect electronic devices.

“They were not arresting anybody. It was a matter apparently of looking for people to get the gadgets,” he said.

“He will be here,” added Masemola.

Advocate Norman Arendse, SC, chief evidence leader for the inquiry, has stated that they want Sibiya to be present on Monday.

“He will be here although committee does have power to order the head of prison to release a detainee to come and give evidence here,” Arendse said.

Asked by Patriotic Alliance MP Ashley Sauls why the team was seizing the electronic devices that could have material to be presented to the inquiry by the witnesses, Masemola said the team did not need his permission to do their work.

“If you say the tools might be needed, I don’t think they take equipment for ever. They will assess what they assess and will return the equipment to the relevant owners,” he said.

Masemola indicated that should Sibiya indicate that he needed his devices, they can't deny him.

“They will have done their work. It does not take months to do what they do,” he said.

Sauls said: “It is interesting that they chose the time.”

The investigation into Sibiya, Nkabinde and Mchunu relates to the case of defeating the ends of justice that was opened by Mkhwanazi after he obtained an affidavit from Masemola on July 4, two days before his infamous press briefing.

He opened the criminal complaint against those he believed were behind the attempts to disband the PKTT.

“For now what we are accusing the minister of, is the minister’s failure to protect the organisation,” he told the inquiry.

Masemola said they opened the case in KZN with his affidavit after they became aware what was done was actually a crime.

“That talks about the defeating ends of justice. It talks about those that participated in efforts to disestablish the PKTT,” he added.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za