MKP and ANC MPs question inconsistencies in Sibiya's testimony

Official opposition in Parliament, uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), has said that they have found the testimony of suspended deputy police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, difficult to understand.

Sibiya spent all of Tuesday fielding questions from MPs in Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by the South African Police Service’s KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

Sibiya denied being a rogue police officer and also had to account for his links to tenderpreneur Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala regarding a supply chain management-related issue.

The MKP’s Thulani Shongwe said Sibiya’s testimony was inconsistent.

“He put on record that he believes the (one) letter from Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, and then when you question him on the other letter from the advocate, he then changes his stance.”

During proceedings, Sibiya also pointed out that the Public Protector and the State Security Agency (SSA) had cleared him of allegations relating to his appointment as Group Forensic Investigation Services (GFIS) head and the procurement of spy equipment while he was at the City of Johannesburg.

Mkhwebane is a former Member of Parliament and former Public Protector of South Africa, who is now the MKP Convenor in Mpumalanga. 

“I don’t know exactly what to make of him as character,” Shongwe said. “Is he a person who avoids answering, or is he just evasive? So I can’t give one general understanding of who is he, or what is he, or how he is answering.

“It begs a lot of questions, though, in terms of character. The man has a cloud over his head. For one to clear that cloud, he would have been clearly honest, and he is very avoidant.

“I believe that when you know the truth, you know it… He never answers one thing… He just goes (rambling) a long way, like a politician, which he says he is not.”

ANC MP Khusela Sangoni-Diko, said that Sibiya’s answers have been interesting as it was the first time that they have received a “markedly different version of events”.

“There are obviously a lot of inconsistencies that we need to probe, especially as deputy national commissioner, and what it is he would have done, under what authority, as it relates to the disbandment of the Political Killing Task Team (PKTT),” Sangoni-Diko said.

She added that his links to Matlala and controversial North West businessman Oupa Brown Mogotsi also concerned them.

Matlala, believed to be connected to fraudulent transactions in Tembisa Hospital, was arrested in 2025 on unrelated charges. He was arrested in April for allegedly orchestrating the 2023 attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend, actress Tebogo Thobejane. He is currently in custody after being denied bail.

Mogotsi has been implicated in the alleged unlawful interference at the South African Police Service (SAPS). Mogotsi has been a central figure during the Madlanga Commission’s early testimony, with multiple witnesses pointing to his proximity to senior SAPS officials and his alleged role in corrupting the integrity of law enforcement.

“There is obviously an issue, as the ANC, and as members, we’re raising about how the General (Sibiya) seems comfortable to consort and engage with people alleged to have been involved in criminal syndicates,” she said.

“We said right from the beginning of the process, is what we want to get to, is at least some most plausible version of the truth, so that is what we are doing.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za