Exclusive: A bombshell testimony at the Madlanga Commission has alleged that suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Lt-General Shadrack Sibiya sought sensitive information on a high-profile murder case not for official police work, but to brief the “side of the suspects.”
The claim, delivered by a detective identified only as Witness A, paints a picture of a deeply compromised police hierarchy, linking a brutal murder to a web of corrupt relationships involving senior officers, a controversial businessman, and EFF leader Julius Malema.
The Murder and the Overpricing Scandal
The case at the heart of the allegation is the murder of Armand Swart, an employee of a Vereeniging engineering company. Swart was shot dead in April 2024 after alleged hitmen mistook him for his boss. The killing was directly connected to the company’s discovery of a staggering 4,650% overpricing on small engineering parts at the state-owned enterprise, Transnet.
“Brief the Other Side”
According to Witness A’s testimony, the national head of Organised Crime, Major General Richard Shibiri, revealed that Sibiya persistently demanded progress updates on the Swart investigation.
The critical moment came when Shibiri declined an invitation to Sibiya’s birthday party at his farm. Shibiri allegedly told Witness A that “at the back of his mind, he knew that Sibiya wanted him to be at the party so that he could give progress feedback on the Armand Swart case.”
The witness stated: “He (Shibiri) said he didn’t want to do it because he knew that General Sibiya didn’t want it to be briefed to the national commissioner, but he wanted to brief the other side.” Witness A clarified that he understood this to mean Sibiya wanted the information “for the accused person, not for the national commissioner as an official report.”
A Web of Powerful Connections
The testimony then wove a complex chain of alleged associations, connecting the murder suspect to the highest levels of politics and policing:
- The murder suspect, Katiso Molefe (also accused in the DJ Sumbody assassination), was linked to a mining interest group in the North West.
- Shibiri allegedly connected Molefe to a Sandton businessman known as “Ze Nxumalo,” describing him as a “close friend of Julius Malema.”
- Malema, in turn, was described as being “close to General Sibiya.”
Shibiri was quoted as “painting a picture that I should be aware that this is how the chain goes,” explicitly linking the suspect to Sibiya via Nxumalo and Malema.
A Chilling Warning
The testimony concluded with a chilling warning from Shibiri to his colleague. He cautioned that the investigators needed to “be careful because the people we are dealing with are heartless and would never allow ‘us’ to relax,” underscoring the perceived danger in investigating this network.
The Madlanga Commission, which is investigating collusion between politicians, police, and the judiciary, continues its work, with this testimony representing one of the most serious allegations of high-level police corruption to date.
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