Suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Police (Crime Detection) · Pretoria / Johannesburg
Testified · suspended · charged in a separate case
South Africa's Deputy National Commissioner of Police for Crime Detection, suspended in July 2025 after KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged he interfered in sensitive investigations. Before the Madlanga Commission he was questioned over the disbandment of the KZN Political Killings Task Team, the removal of 121 dockets, and alleged links to figures connected to the so-called 'Big Five' cartel. He denies any corruption, though he conceded certain procedural deviations; none of the allegations has been tested to a finding. Separately, and not arising from the matters this commission is investigating, he appeared in the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday 22 September 2026 on five criminal charges. Per The Citizen and the Daily Maverick he was arrested the previous day by the Commission's Recommendations Task Team, the unit set up to act on this commission's recommendations. Per IOL, the Daily Maverick and TimesLIVE the charges are said to arise from alleged incidents between 16 May and 3 August 2026: rape, trafficking in persons, promoting the sexual grooming of a child, and two counts of the sexual grooming of a child. Per The Citizen his formal bail application was set down for 29 September 2026 and he is held at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria meanwhile. It was heard that day and did not finish: per SABC News and Sunday World the Randburg Magistrate's Court postponed it to Thursday 1 October 2026 so the state could read documents handed over that morning and prepare to cross-examine the defence's first witness, and he remains in custody. He is asking for bail of R20,000, denies all five charges and, per SABC News and the Mail and Guardian, says he will plead not guilty; his attorney Estelle Kilian told the court the case is trumped up and aimed at removing him from the police service. This archive publishes the charges and the court dates and no more: a complainant was a minor, and the particulars are not ours to circulate. Per the National Prosecuting Authority's Kaizer Kganyago he has not pleaded, because 'the matter had not yet reached that stage'. On the same day the police service moved on him internally: per Briefly the SAPS national spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, confirmed that a senior presiding officer served him with notice of a disciplinary hearing in the court holding cells, and that the five day notice period makes 5 October 2026 the earliest the hearing can start, at Kgosi Mampuru II if he is still in custody. Per Sowetan that disciplinary process concerns the allegations made about him at this commission, among them an improper relationship with alleged underworld figures and the gifts of twenty impalas and money attributed to Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala; Briefly ties the notice to the criminal charges instead, and this archive records both rather than choosing. On 1 October 2026, as his part-heard bail application resumed in the Randburg Magistrate's Court, the picture widened on both fronts. Per Eyewitness News the State added a fifth charge, negligent handling of a firearm, with prosecutor Velile Makhasana telling the court that 'a separate case number has been registered in respect of the firearm issue' and that the firearm 'was stored in his vehicle'. Per The Citizen the court heard that he now faces three separate internal disciplinary notices rather than one: a first set down for 2 to 6 and 10 to 20 November 2026, a second running as an expedited process under SAPS Regulation 9 and set down for 5 October 2026, which is the one arising from this commission's findings, and a third served on him on 30 September 2026 while he was in custody. That case is untested, no court has convicted him of anything, a disciplinary notice is an employer's process and decides nothing about any criminal charge, and he is presumed innocent. He is a different person from Lieutenant-Colonel Kwazikwakhe Sibiya.
Shadrack Sibiyageneral shadrack sibiyaDeputy National CommissionerMadlanga Commission
This profile summarises testimony and evidence given on the public record before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. It restates allegations as presented at the hearings and is not a finding of guilt, liability, or wrongdoing by any person.
Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya · Testified · suspended · charged in a separate case
Their role
What the record says
Parliament's parallel committee leaves 'serious unresolved issues' against him but does not find he acted for a cartel
The National Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Allegations made by Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, which was then due to report to the House by 11 September 2026, a deadline since extended to 30 October 2026, has been deliberating a draft report that runs to roughly 800 pages. Its standing draft findings on Sibiya, reported across July and August 2026, are that serious unresolved issues remain over his handling of 121 case dockets and his implementation of the directive dissolving the Political Killings Task Team, but that the evidence does not prove he acted on behalf of businessman Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, Brown Mogotsi or an organised crime network. On 4 September 2026 the committee was still divided on the wider question of criminal infiltration and had not adopted the report. A draft parliamentary report is not an adopted one, and neither is a criminal verdict. Sibiya denies wrongdoing, none of this has been determined against him, and he is presumed innocent.
Matlala says he raised payments to Sibiya with the KZN commissioner (Day 167, 26 August 2026)
Per Business Day, Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala testified that at a meeting with KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at Umhlanga on 15 April 2025 he told the commissioner about payments made to Sibiya - insisting that the payments were made by other people and not by him. Sibiya faces the wider allegation, running through this commission since Mkhwanazi's July 2025 press conference, that he was bankrolled by Matlala. He denies it. Matlala's account has not been tested, Sibiya has not answered this particular version of it before the commission, and he is presumed innocent.
Public allegation of interference
On 6 July 2025 Mkhwanazi publicly alleged that Sibiya colluded to disband the Political Killings Task Team to shield organised-crime interests. Sibiya strongly disputes the allegations, which remain untested.
Suspension pending the inquiry
Sibiya was placed on special leave / suspended from his post as Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection in 2025, pending the outcome of the commission. He continues to deny wrongdoing.
Disbandment of the task team
Sibiya testified that he believed the unit had achieved its purpose, but conceded he used an implementation plan that deviated from the approved strategy and that the team was effectively disbanded without a formal review - framing this as a procedural deviation, not corruption.
Removal of 121 dockets
He denied ordering the dockets brought to Gauteng, but admitted he took control of the dockets - including matters on the court roll - and that they sat in his office for roughly three months before being returned. He maintains the intention was to inspect them.
Alleged ties to 'Cat' Matlala (denied)
It was alleged Sibiya had improper links to alleged cartel figure Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala. He categorically denied ever receiving any benefit, calling the suggestion 'false, unfounded and devoid of any factual basis,' while conceding he had met Matlala on several occasions.
