Floyd Shivambu, the outspoken leader of the Afrika Mayibuye Movement, has issued a formal call for the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry to receive both a further deadline extension and a radically broadened mandate, arguing that the current scope of investigations remains dangerously narrow. Speaking at a media briefing in Braamfontein on Wednesday, Shivambu asserted that the commission—chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga—must be empowered to probe alleged criminal infiltration and endemic corruption across all spheres of South African society, not merely within law enforcement structures. “Limiting the commission’s gaze to police misconduct alone is like treating a fever while ignoring the infection,” Shivambu told journalists. “We need a mandate that reaches into every government department, every state-owned entity, every provincial tender system, and every municipal procurement office. Criminal networks have metastasized across this country, and only a truly comprehensive inquiry can map the full anatomy of state capture’s afterlife.” Shivambu’s demand comes as the commission, originally established to investigate political interference and corruption inside the South African Police Service (SAPS), prepares to hand over its final recommendations. He warned that artificial deadlines should not shield powerful individuals from accountability. “Justice has no expiry date,” he declared. The Afrika Mayibuye leader also called for the commission to receive powers to compel testimony from sitting cabinet ministers and private sector executives, many of whom, he alleged, have evaded scrutiny. Legal analysts note that any mandate expansion would require a presidential proclamation, which appears unlikely given government’s push to conclude existing inquiries. However, Shivambu vowed to mobilize civil society and parliamentary pressure to force the issue, framing the demand as a test of the ruling elite’s “genuine commitment to cleansing the state.”
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