Suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya has flatly denied any involvement in the controversial transfer of 121 case dockets related to politically motivated killings from KwaZulu-Natal to Pretoria, telling the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that he has never seen a single file.
Testifying on Wednesday, Sibiya directly contradicted allegations made by KZN police chief Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who had claimed that the dockets were moved to Sibiya’s office and that five of them contained instructions to arrest suspectsinstructions that were ignored while the files were under Sibiya’s control.
‘Not in My Office, Not in My Safe’
Sibiya was emphatic in his denial. “We didn’t take the dockets, store them at the head office and they are gathering dust somewhere in my office,” he told the commission.
“I have never seen even a single docket, to date. I have not seen even one. They have never been in my office. I don’t have a safe in my office nor an archive.”
According to Sibiya, it was Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, head of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), who issued the instruction that the dockets be moved from KZN to Gauteng. The files remained under SAPS head office control for three months.
Sibiya testified that attempts were made to return the dockets to KZN, but Mkhwanazi rejected the offer. “The fact that Mkhwanazi rejected those dockets, on its own, should not have been allowed,” he said.
The State of the Dockets
Sibiya painted a worrying picture of the investigation into the dockets themselves. He said only 18% of them were recorded on the last day of investigation in 2025. A further 21% were last investigated in 2024, while 22% date back to 2023.
He dismissed Mkhwanazi’s claim that swift arrests were made within a week of the dockets being returned to KZN last year, labelling the assertion “incongruous and unimpressive.”
Sibiya pointed out that the PKTT failed to obtain signed J50 formsrequired to make arrestsfor more than three years. He also rejected the notion that the PKTT was effective, citing an example of a docket that took five years to conclude despite a two-year target.
“It is a lie that the PKTT was effective in its work,” he said.
Cartel Links and WhatsApp Evidence
Sibiya has faced scrutiny over his alleged links with criminal cartels, including alleged crime boss Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. He strongly denied any close relationship.
“I have never been involved in a drug cartel and I have never been involved in drugs,” he said. “The suggestion that I am a close friend of Matlala is untenable, given that I only met him for the first time in January 2024.”
He dismissed Mkhwanazi’s testimony, which relied on WhatsApp messages allegedly from a phone taken from Matlala, saying the evidence contained unverified references to him.
Matlala was awarded a R360 million tender through his company Medicare24 to provide medical services to the SAPS Pretoria College. Sibiya said he was introduced to Matlala simply as one of SAPS’s service providers.
PKTT Disbandment
Sibiya also addressed the disbandment of the PKTT, effective 31 December 2024. He said he was unaware that suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu would take that step but was not surprised.
He testified that National Commissioner Fannie Masemola did not oppose the disbandment, which formed part of a consultative meeting on 1 November 2025.
According to Sibiya, existing task team structures, including the 2018 PKTT, were set to be replaced by provincial robbery and murder units, based on a study group’s recommendations.
This corroborated Mchunu’s earlier testimony that if Masemola had approved the new organisational structure based on the 2019 work study, the PKTT would have been dissolved back in March 2024.
Public Protector and Intelligence Reports
Sibiya also addressed a 2020 Public Protector probe that cleared him of wrongdoing in his appointment to the Group Forensics and Investigation Services at the City of Johannesburg. The report found his appointment and salary adjustments complied with the city’s legal framework.
He dismissed allegations by Gauteng ex-Hawks head Prince Mokotedi, who claimed Sibiya was implicated in high treason and espionage based on a “Top Secret Intelligence Report” from April 2016. Sibiya described the report as “highly questionable.”
The Battle of Narratives
The commission has become a battle of narratives: Mkhwanazi’s version of dockets removed, arrests stalled, and cartel connections; Sibiya’s version of dockets he never saw, investigations already stagnant, and a reputation he says is being tarnished.
Who is telling the truth? The commission will ultimately decide. But for the families of political killings victims, waiting for justice that has already been delayed for years, the testimony offers little comfort. The dockets exist. The crimes remain unsolved. And two senior police officials are locked in a public war over who is to blame.
